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A    LOITERER    IN    NEW    ENGLAND 


THE  OLD  HYERS  HOUSE   ,  CHATHAM,  CAPE  COD. 
FROM  A  WOOD  BLOCK  PRINT  BY   MARGARET  PATTERSON. 


A    LOITERER 
IN    NEW    ENGLAND 


BY 

HELEN  W.  HENDERSON 

AUTHOR  OF  "A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  YORK,"  "THE  ART  TREASURES 
OF  WASHINGTON,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,   1919, 
BY   GEORGE   H.    DORAX   COMPANY 


PRINTKD  IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA 


STACK 
ANNEX 


"  It  is  remarkable  that  men  do  not  sail  the  sea 
with  more  expectation.  Nothing  remarkable  was 
ever  accomplished  in  a  prosaic  mood.  The  heroes 
and  discoverers  have  found  true  more  than  was  pre- 
viously believed,  only  when  they  were  expecting  and 
dreaming  of  something  more  than  their  contempo- 
raries dreamed  of,  or  even  themselves  discovered, 
that  is,  when  they  were  in  a  frame  of  mind  fitted  to 
behold  the  truth." 

THOREAU'S  Cape  Cod. 


TO 
VIRGINIA 

THERE  was  a  section  of  New  England  which  we  knew  as 
children  as  we  knew  our  pockets.  And  our  pockets  were 
worth  knowing  in  those  days,  I  fancy,  —  chewing  gum, 
pickled  limes,  blackjacks,  and  gibraltars. 

You  have  not  seen  it  for  years,  yet  there  it  lies  —  peace- 
ful, serene,  eternal  —  with  that  sweet  wild  tang  —  exactly 
as  we  knew  it  together  as  ardent,  eager,  adventurous  chil- 
dren. 

True  there  were  no  "  electrics  "  then  circling  the  cape 
we  tramped  so  diligently  on  our  voyages  of  discovery. 
The  "  barge  "  was  our  occasional  vehicle,  the  front  seat, 
high  beside  the  driver,  our  place,  the  ride  up  from  Rock- 
port  harried  by  the  haunting  uncertainty  as  to  our  status 
—  guests  or  passengers.  As  guests  we  were  dropped  famil- 
iarly at  the  Linwood,  the  terminus  of  the  route,  but  when, 
for  some  reason  obscured  from  our  childish  comprehension, 
it  was  necessary  to  charge  us,  we  were  made  aware  of  it 
by  the  cracking  of  the  whip  and  swift  rounding  of  the 
curve  which  landed  us  grandly  at  our  destination.  Though 
the  fee  was  enormous  the  transaction  was  proudly  tacit. 
We  never  dreamed  of  asking. 

On  Dogtown  Common  a  few  boulders  have  disin- 
tegrated, leaving  strange,  rough,  pebbly  heaps ;  but  the 
same  cows  wander  through  the  blueberry  bushes  over  its 
eerie  vastness,  and  stop,  surprised  at  the  rare  sight  of  an 
intruding  human.  The  Whale's  Jaw,  gaping  widely  on 
the  edge  of  this  wild,  stony  expanse,  filled  as  with  ancient 


Vlll 

ruins  of  some  prehistoric  mortuary  range,  seems  to  realize 
that  heavy  moment :  "  when  churchyards  yawn." 

The  apples  on  Pigeon  Hill  are  as  hard  and  as  green  as 
when  you  and  Sidney  Emery  and  I  used  to  sit  in  the  grass 
by  the  stone  wall  and  make  stolen  meals  of  them.  Seven- 
eighths  of  the  horizon,  they  used  to  tell  us  statistically, 
were  visible  from  the  summit  of  the  mound,  where  those  two 
spare,  wind-ridden  elm  trees  seemed  to  simulate  the  pigeon's 
legs,  as,  we  figured,  he  lay  upon  his  back,  pointing  his  feet 
to  the  sky.  Straitsmouth,  Thatcher's,  and  the  Salvages 
lie  prone  upon  the  water,  and  one  can  still  see,  strangely, 
the  interspaces  from  this  bird's-eye  vantage,  curiously  up- 
setting to  the  normal  vision  of  these  islands  piled  together 
from  the  lower  level.  The  breakwater,  to  which  we  jour- 
neyed endlessly  in  that  little  tug,  leading  the  stone  scow, 
laden  with  granite  from  the  quarries  for  footless  dumping, 
stands  still  a  narrow  ledge  just  above  high  water,  and  the 
great  projected  harbour  has  apparently  advanced  little 
beyond  our  memory  of  it.  All  about  the  clear  music  of 
the  shivering  chip-chip-chip  of  splintering  granite  from 
invisible  quarries,  buried  in  masses  of  sweet  fern,  bayberry, 
and  wild  roses,  breaks  cleanly  on  the  ear,  just  as  it  used 
to  do. 

The  essence  of  the  romance  of  the  horizon  seemed  always, 
somehow,  and  still  seems  to  be  the  unchanging  outline  of 
Agamenticus,  by  day  —  the  revolving  light  of  the  Isles  of 
Shoals,  by  night.  How  we  looked  daily  to  the  former  to 
get  our  barometric  bearings !  And  how  invigorated  we 
felt  on  those  tingling  mornings  when  all  three  humps  were 
visible  —  soft,  cerulean  undulations  —  high  above  the 
water  line!  There  were  days,  you  remember,  so  ctheric 
that  we  could,  with  the  naked  eye,  make  out  the  houses  on 
Appledore  Island,  twenty  miles  away. 


TO   VIRGINIA  ix 

But  the  real  emotion  was  in  the  flash  of  the  revolving 
light  —  glimmering,  gleaming,  vanishing  —  glimmering, 
gleaming,  vanishing  —  never  ceasing,  pausing,  faithfully 
warning  generation  after  generation  of  mariners  —  invin- 
cible, sempiternal  symbol.  Low  clown,  nestling  close  to  the 
rich  indigo  waters  —  glimmering,  gleaming,  vanishing  — 
glimmering,  gleaming,  vanishing  —  I  can  see  it  now.  I  can 
hear,  too,  the  languorous  lap  of  the  sea  upon  the  rocks,  the 
rush  into  the  hidden  pools,  the  heavy  plash  —  sop-sop  of 
the  Spouting  Horn  at  half  tide,  the  seething  retreat  of  the 
foaming  waters  over  the  barnacles,  through  the  dank  mesh 
of  slippery  seaweed,  into  those  depths  of  malachite  beyond 
the  border.  How  far  away  the  stars  seemed  as  we  lay  as 
late  as  they  would  let  us  on  those  flat,  white  ledges  back 
of  Way's  Folly ! 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

ILLUSTKATIONS xiii 

I    THE  NEW  ENGLAND  ISLAND 21 

II    THE    JUMPING-ON    PLACE  :    PROVINCETOWN  39 

III    CAPE  COD:  EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY   .  50 

IV    THE  BACK  SIDE  OF  THE  CAPE 73 

V    SHIFTING  SANDS:  THE  SPIT  AND  THE  HOOK  98 

VI    THE  PROVINCE  LANDS 117 

VII    THE  "MAY  FLOWER'S"  VOYAGE:  THE  FORE- 
FATHERS DISCOVER  THE  CAPE 134* 

VIII    THE  PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH 168 

IX    MODKRN    PLYMOUTH 196 

X    SALEM  OF  THE  WITCHES 221 

XI    THE  "CAPTAINS'"  SALEM 2-15 

XII    SAMUEL  MC!NTIRE'S  SALEM 271 

XIII  BOSTON  :  THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     .  C07 

XIV  BEACON    HILL 327 

XV    THE  BULFINCH  TRAIL 382 

XVI    THE  KERNEL  OF  THE  NUT 383 

XVII    OLD    LANDMARKS 396 

XVIII    MONUMENTAL  BOSTON    .  412 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

"  The  Old  Hycrs  House,"  Chatham,  Cape  Cod    Frontispiece 

Captain  John  Smith's  Map  of  New  England,  1614-  .  24 

Part  of  the  Travels  of  Capt.  John  Smith  amongst 
Turks,  Tartars,  and  others.     From  History  by 

John  Payn 30 

His  Combat  with  Grualgo 30 

How  He  Slew  Bonny-Mulgro     .....  30 

Three  Turks'  Heads  in  a  Banner       ....  30 

Provincctown  Harbour  and  Railroad  Wharf    .         .  44 

The  Fishing  Fleet  at  Anchor  near  Railroad  Wharf  44 

Chatham  Beach.     By  Margaret  Patterson         .         .  54 

Migrating  Geese.    By  Frank  W.  Benson  ...  66 

"  Moonlight."    By  Frank  W.  Benson       ...  76 

The  Back  Side :  Dunes  of  the  Outer  Ridge        .         .  82 

The  Sand  Dunes  out  Back.    By  Rose  Moffett  .         .  82 

The  Ulysses, Brutus  and  Volusia  sailing  from  Salem, 

February  21,  1802 90 

Wrecked  on  the  Beach  at  Cape  Cod          ...  90 

A  Sand  Dune  Encroaching  upon  an  Oasis        .         .  100 

"Old  Forest  Beds,  Long  Since  Buried  in  the  Sands, 

Crop  out  Occasionally"          /                 .         .         .  100 

Salt  Works  of  Loring  Crocker  at  Barastablc,  1872  108 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

"The  Wind  Whirls  the  Dunes  into  Fantastic 
Shapes" 

The  Province  Lands :  "  Going  Gunning."    By  Dodge 

MacKnight .      126 

The  Slender  Alien  —  Italy's  Transplanted  Torre  del 
Mangia  —  as  a  Pilgrim  Monument  on  the  Tip 
End  of  Cape  Cod 140 

The  Pilgrim   Monument   at  Provincetown   as   Seen 

from  the  Dunes 140 

"  The  Pilgrims  on  the  May  Flower."    In  the  Boston 

State  House.     By  Henry  Oliver  Walker      .         .158 

Edward  Winslow.  From  an  Old  Portrait  in  Pilgrim 
Hall,  Plymouth 

Pilgrim  Meersteads  along  Town  Brook 

Ancient    Home    of    Major    William    Bradford    at 

Kingston 190 

Holmes  House,  Plymouth  .         .         .         .         .         .190 

"  The  Clam  Digger."    By  Frank  W.  Benson    .         .198 

Burial  Hill,  Plymouth,  Showing  the  Church  of  the 

Pilgrimage 202 

The  Bradford  Monument,  Burial  Hill,  Plymouth     .      202 

Tombstone   of  Francis   le   Baron,   "The   Nameless 

Nobleman,"  Burial  Hill,  Plymouth          .  208 

House  of  the  "Nameless  Nobleman"  at  Falmouth. 

By  Sears  Gallagher          .  .         .      208 

Mansion  at  the  Corner  of  Court  Square,  Plymouth, 

1805  .  •      216 

North  Street  Throwing  out  a  Left  Branch  —  Wins- 
low  Street  —  Both  Leading  to  the  Harbour  .  216 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

PAOE 

The  House  of  Seven  Gables.  Erected  1662,  Re- 
modeled 1910 224 

The  "  Great  House,"  Built  by  Philip  English  in  1685     224 
Rear  of  the  "  Old  Witch  House  "      .  234 

An  Old  House  Built  in  1684,  Showing  Gables,  Over- 
hanging Story  and  the  Lean-to  Characteristic  of 
the  First  Period  of  Salem  Architecture  .  .  234 

Benjamin  Pickman.  From  a  Portrait  in  the  Essex 

Institute,  Salem 242 

Benjamin  Pickman  House,  1743.  From  a  Litho- 
graph Made  About  1840-50 242 

The   Richard   Derby   House,   1761,   Derby    Street, 

Salem 248 

Doorway  of  the  Richard  Derby  House     .         .         .      248 

The  Exquisite  Carving  of  the  Balusters  and  Newell 
Post,  Richard  Derby  House  ..... 

"  Derby  Wharf."    By  Philip  Little  .... 

Portrait  of  Elias  Hasket  Derby.  By  James  Froth- 

ingham  .........  256 

The  Mount  Vernon  of  Salem,  Owned  by  Elias  Has- 
ket Derby  and  Commanded  by  His  Son,  Captain 
Derby 256 

"  Old  Wharves,  Salem."     By  Philip  Little        .         .      260 

"  Coasters,  Salem  Harbour."     By  Philip  Little        .      260 

Portrait    of    Captain    Carnes,    Peabody    Museum. 

Salem 266 

Portrait  of  Captain  Benjamin  Carpenter,  Peabody 

Museum,  Salem 266 

Captain  Benjamin  Crowninshicld,  Commander  of 
Cleopatra 's  Barge  on  Her  Mediterranean  Voyage 
in  1817  266 


XVI 

PAGE 

Cleopatra  s  Barge,  Built  by  Retire  Becket  for  Cap- 
tain George  Crowninshield 266 

Letter  of  Marque,  Brig  Grand  Turk,  1815       .         .      266 

Mclntire's  Original  Elevation  of  the  Ezekiel  Hersey 

Derby  House,  1800 272 

Mantel  in  the  Ezekiel  Hersey  Derby  House     .         .      272 

Mantel  Showing  Landscape  Paper,  Captain  Cook's 

House,  1801 278 

Entrance  Porch  to  the  Georgian  Side  of  Jerathmeel 

Peirce  House,  1782 278 

Knocker  to  the  Georgian  Door  of  Jerathmeel  Peirce 

House 278 

Georgian  Parlour,  1782,  of  Jerathmeel  Peirce  House     278 

Mantel  and  Mirror  in  the  Adam  Parlour,  Jerathmeel 

Peirce  House,  1800 278 

Portrait  of  Nathaniel  Bowditch.      By  Charles   Os- 

good,  1835 288 

The  Ship  Hercules  of  Salem,  Owned  by  Nathaniel 
West  and  Commanded  by  His  Brother,  Capt.  Ed- 
ward West.  Passing  the  Mole  Head  of  Naples, 
September  13,  1809 288 

Mantel   in   the   Parlour   of   the   Kimball  Residence, 

Salem        .         .' 294 

Kimball  House  Doorway,  14  Pickman  Street  .         .      294 
Spiral  Stairway  in  the  Kimball  House     .         .         .      294 

Porch  and  Doorway  of  the  Peabody-Silsbee  House, 

1797          . 294 

Front  Hall  and  Stairway  of  David  P.  Waters  House, 

1805  300 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

PAGE 

Dudley  L.  Pickman  House,  1816,  No.  27  Chestnut 

Street 300 

The  Bolles  Doorway,  No.  8  Chestnut  Street,  1810  .      300 

Samuel    Mclntire's    chef    d'ccuvre,    the    Tea-House 

from  the  Hersey  Derby  Farm,  Peabody,  1799     .      300 

Eagle  Carved  by  Samuel  Mclntire  in  1802.  From 
the  West  Gate  of  the  Common,  and  now  on  Top 
of  the  City  Hall 300 

Governor  John  Winthrop.     From  an  Old  Portrait 

in  the  State  House,  Ascribed  to  Van  Dyck  .         .      314 

The  Common  and  Beacon  Street        ....      332 

Portrait   of    John    Hancock.      By    John    Singleton 

Copley      .....*....      34-8 

The  New  Hall  of  Representatives,  State  House  Ex- 
tension, Showing  the  Sacred  Cod  in  Place  Oppo- 
site the  Speaker's  Chair  ......  354 

Statue    of   George   Washington.      By    Sir   Francis 

Chantrey,  London,  1826,  Doric  Hall,  State  House     354 

The  Bulfinch  Building,  Massachusetts  General  Hos- 
pital. By  Sears  Gallagher  .....  366 

Portrait  of  Josiah  Quincy.  By  Gilbert  Stuart  .  384 
Boston,  Old  and  New.  By  Sears  Gallagher  .  .  390 
The  Old  State  House.  By  Sears  Gallagher  .  .  398 

Sketch  for  Statue  of  Warren.     By  Paul  Wayland 

Bartlett.     Warren  Square,  Roxbury      .         .         .      402 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral.     By  Scars  Gallagher       .         .      408 

Equestrian    Statue    of    George    Washington.       Bv 

Thomas  Ball,  Boston,  1859   .         .         .         .        '.      414 

Saint  Stephen.     By  Dr.  Rimmer        .         .         .         .414 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Falling  Gladiator.  By  Dr.  Rimmer  .  .  .  414* 
Colonel  Thomas  Cass,  Statue  in  the  Boston  Public 

Gardens.  By  Richard  E.  Brooks  .  .  .  420 
"Death  Staying  the  Hand  of  the  Sculptor."  By 

Daniel  Chester  French 420 

Entrance  Boston  Public  Library       ....      430 

Statue   of  Sir  Henry  Vane.      By   Frederick  Mac- 

Monnies 430 

"Bacchante."     By  Frederick  MacMonnies      .        .      434 

Colonnade,  Boston  Public  Library,  Showing  Frag- 
ment of  the  Muses  by  Puvis  de  Chavannes  .  .  434 

"  Mater  Dolorosa."  By  John  Singer  Sargent  .  434 
John  Quincy  Adams.  By  John  Singleton  Copley  .  440 

Self  Portrait,  Painted  in  1849  by  William  Morris 

Hunt .         .       .      440 

The  Fortune  Teller.     By  William  Morris  Hunt        .  440 

Planting  Potatoes.     By  Jean  Fra^ois  Millet  .         .  440 

Head  of  a  Goddess  from  Chios,  Fourth  Century  B.  c.  442 

Aphrodite  Marble,  Fourth  Century  B.  c.  .         .         .  442 

Padmapani,  the  Compassionate  Lord.  Chinese  Col- 
lections. Late  Sixteenth  or  Early  Seventeenth 
Century  .........  442 

Madonna  and  Child  with  Saints  and  Angels.     By 

Fra  Angelico  ........      442 

Portrait     of     Fray     Felix     Hortensio     Palavicino. 

Painted  1609  by  El  Greco 442 


A   LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 


A   LOITERER 
IN   NEW  ENGLAND 

CHAPTER   I 
THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND 

THAT  exquisite  northeast  section  of  the  United 
States,  which  we  know  under  the  apt  title  of  New 
England,  presents,  in  all  its  many  phases,  so  rich 
a  country  for  leisurely  investigation  that  one  stands 
embarrassed  upon  the  threshold  of  the  subject,  un- 
certain through  which  avenue  of  adventure  to  lead 
a  companion  who  would  make  his  initial  entree  into 
this  garden  spot. 

Every  traveller  must  have  remarked  the  sharp 
existing  contrast  between  the  physical  character  of 
England  and  Scotland.  The  moment  the  north- 
bound train  enters  upon  the  border  land  between 
the  two  countries  there  is  this  strange,  satisfying 
difference  in  all  things.  The  guards  speak  the 
broad  tongue  of  the  Scottish  lowlander;  beautiful, 
soft  downs  and  rolling,  verdant  landscape,  filled 
with  sleek,  brown-eyed  cattle,  give  way  to  wild, 


22     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

stony,  savage  pasture  for  beasts  with  wide-spread 
horns  and  shaggy  coats  matted  with  burs;  neat 
hedges  and  well-kept  estates  to  rough  gorse  and 
crags,  only  half  dissembled  by  tangled  masses  of 
purple  heather,  which  attaches  itself  abundantly 
to  the  scanty  soil.  Men,  too,  are  more  stalwart, 
architecture  more  rugged.  There  is  less  atmos- 
phere, less  envelopment,  more  vivid  beauty,  less 
compromise,  more  vital  frankness. 

So  in  New  England  we  have  but  to  step  across 
the  border  of  the  adjoining  state  to  feel  at  once  the 
sharp  differentiation,  the  geological  cut-off  which 
expresses  itself  in  the  general  aspect  of  the  land 
and  in  the  thousand  and  one  simple  facts  of  its 
topography,  its  flora,  its  fauna,  its  people,  its  cus- 
toms, its  coast,  its  climate,  and  its  industries. 

For  its  physical  difference  from  the  neighbour- 
ing states  science  furnishes  the  most  plausible  of 
reasons.  By  the  early  discoverers  and  first  comers 
to  this  continent,  New  England  was  thought  to  be 
an  island,  a  supposition  not  so  very  far  from  the 
truth  if  one  but  stop  to  think  of  its  bold  projection 
into  the  Atlantic  on  the  one  side  and  the  chain  of 
rivers  and  lakes  on  the  other  which  makes  its  insula- 
tion almost  complete.  Certain  fragments  of  this 
"  physical  region "  have  been  divorced  from  the 
main  body  politically  and  nationally.  Rationally 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND   ISLAND       23 

this  area,  dominated  by  the  New  England  states, 
includes  the  British  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick,  part  of  Lower  Canada,  and  a  nar- 
row slice  of  the  state  of  New  York  with  Long  Is- 
land; but  arbitrary  boundaries  have  confined  New 
England  to  about  one-half  the  related  district.  The 
logical  boundaries  of  the  tract  or  peninsula  are  the 
long  bed  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  deep,  wide 
chasm  which  holds  the  waters  of  Lake  Champlain, 
Lake  George,  and  the  Hudson  River. 

Geologists  say  that  this  part  of  the  earth's  surface 
was  one  of  the  earliest  exposed  after  the  glacial 
epoch,  which  accounts  for  the  worn  character  of  the 
soil  and  the  granite  structure  everywhere  laid  bare 
to  view. 

The  distinguishing  charm  of  New  England  re- 
sults largely  from  its  isolation,  its  immense  variety 
within  itself  ranging  from  the  fertile  plains  of  the 
Connecticut  Valley  to  the  densely  wooded  forests 
of  Maine,  from  the  lofty  peaks  of  the  White  Moun- 
tains to  the  sinuous  sea-coast,  alternately  rock- 
bound  and  sandy,  following  the  outline  of  the  pen- 
insula for  seven  or  eight  hundred  miles. 

Everything  is  beautifully  logical  in  the  locations 
of  the  original  New  England  towns  planted  down 
its  coast  line  from  Maine  to  Rhode  Island,  a  coast 
line  immensely  varied,  indented  by  estuaries  of 


divers  extent,  forming  commodious  harbours 
throughout  its  length  for  the  different  aspects  of 
commerce,  defence,  and  trade.  While  the  capes, 
hooks,  and  islands  made  it  possible  for  the  mariner 
to  live  close  to  his  pursuits,  small  or  spacious  inlets 
provided  peace  and  security  for  the  founding  of  the 
greater  towns.  The  harbours  of  Portland,  Boston, 
and  Newport,  by  their  ample,  deep,  accessible 
waters  were  ideally  made  for  settlement  and  the 
establishment  of  vast  commercial  enterprise;  while 
Portsmouth,  Newburyport,  Gloucester,  Salem, 
New  Bedford,  Providence,  New  London,  and 
New  Haven,  in  the  early  days  grew  out  of  the  ro- 
bust maritime  activities,  initiated  by  these  ports. 

Though  not  its  first  discoverer,  New  England 
owes  its  name  to  Captain  John  Smith,  that  roman- 
tic navigator,  who  explored  this  coast  in  an  open 
boat  from  the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot  River  to 
Cape  Cod.  He  set  out  from  Downs,  in  the  spring 
of  1614,  with  two  ships  equipped  by  a  few  London 
merchants,  and  "  chanced  to  arrive  "  at  Monhegan, 
in  the  month  of  April.  He  had  with  him  some 
forty-five  men  and  boys,  and  while  most  of  them 
were  collecting  a  cargo  of  fish  and  furs  with  which 
to  appease  the  "  adventurers  "  who  had  financed  the 
enterprise,  Smith  and  eight  or  nine  of  those  who 
might  best  be  spared,  ''ranged  the  coast  in  a  small 


NEW'ENGLAND 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH'S  MAP  OK  NKW  KN(il.ANI),  1614: 

"THE  MOST  REMAROUEABLE  PARTS  TUTS  NAMED  BY  THE  HIGH  AND 

MIGHTY  PRINCE  CHARLES  PRINCE  OK  GREAT  BRITAINE." 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND       25 

boat,"  and  made  the  survey  upon  which  is  based 
Smith's  handsome  map,  and  collected  the  notes 
afterward  elaborated  into  his  "  Description  of  New 
England."  This  description,  together  with  the  map, 
Smith  addressed  and  delivered  to  Prince  Charles, 
afterwards  Charles  I,  with  the  plea  that  he  would 
change  the  barbarous  native  names  "  for  such  Eng- 
lish as  posterity  may  say :  Prince  Charles  was  their 
Godfather." 

Smith  was  a  nai'f  fisherman.  "Our  plot,"  he 
writes,  "was  to  take  whales  &  make  try  alls  of  a 
Myne  of  Gold  and  Copper.  If  thofe  failed,  Fifh 
and  Furres  was  then  our  refuge,  to  make  ourfelues 
fauers  howfoeuer:  we  saw  many,  spent  much  time 
in  chafing  them,  but  could  not  kill  any."  The 
master  of  the  vessels,  Smith  discovered,  knew  less 
than  himself  of  such  matters,  and  he  laments  that 
by  late  arrival  and  "  long  lingering  about  the 
whale  "  the  prime  of  both  hunting  and  fishing  sea- 
sons had  passed  "  ere  we  perceived  it,  we  thinking 
their  seasons  served  at  all  times:  but  we  found  it 
otherwise." 

Smith  laboured  three  times  as  long  for  New 
England  as  he  did  for  the  Virginia  colony,  with 
which  his  name  is  so  generally  identified.  A 
doughty  hero,  the  much  made  of  Pocahontas  ad- 
venture, upon  which  popular  ignorance  has  fast- 


26     A  LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

ened  as  the  chief  event  of  his  life,  was  but  a  mere  in- 
cident in  a  career  filled  with  similar  escapes  and 
desperate  hazards  of  all  kinds. 

Having  looked  the  coast  over,  Smith  attempted  a 
second  voyage  to  New  England,  in  June,  1615,  set- 
ting out  with  thirty  men  to  settle  on  the  coast  of 
Maine,  near  Pemaquid.  At  the  outset  of  this  ex- 
pedition he  was  chased  three  times  by  pirates  and 
finally  captured  by  a  French  man-of-war  through 
the  cowardice  and  perfidy  of  his  associates.  At 
each  encounter  the  crew  implored  Smith  to  yield, 
claiming  that  they  were  hired  to  fish  and  not  to 
fight ;  but  twice  he  brought  them  to  terms  by  threat- 
ening to  fire  the  powder  and  "  split  the  ship,"  unless 
they  stood  to  the  defence. 

In  the  third  encounter  they  were  chased  by  four 
French  men-of-war  and  Smith,  who  spoke  the  lan- 
guage, was  persuaded  to  board  the  Frenchman  as 
interpreter.  No  sooner  had  he  stepped  from  his 
vessel  than  master,  mate,  and  pilot  abandoned  their 
leader  without  further  parley,  leaving  him  with 
nothing  but  his  "wastecoat"  and  breeches.  "I 
am  not  the  first  hath  beene  betrayed  by  pirats," 
says  Smith,  piqued  by  his  capture,  "  and  foure  men 
of  warre,  prouided  as  they  were,  had  beene  suffi- 
cient to  haue  taken  Sampson,  Hercules,  and  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  no  other  way  furnisht  than  I  was." 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND       27 

The  master  of  the  ship  was  Hunt,  the  same 
who,  as  we  shall  later  see,  abused  the  savages  and 
captured  and  sold  a  number  of  them  as  slaves,  in 
Spain.  Smith  does  not  hesitate  to  accuse  Hunt  of 
having  robbed  him  of  his  "  plots  "  and  observations, 
intending  to  make  capital  of  them  upon  his  return 
to  England  by  passing  them  off  as  his  own.  But 
Smith  wrote  the  whole  "  discourse  "  from  memory, 
during  his  three  months'  captivity  in  the  gun  room 
of  the  French  vessel.  This  he  did  as  much  to  cir- 
cumvent his  enemy  as  to  keep  his  "perplexed 
thoughts  from  too  much  meditation  "  of  his  miser- 
able estate. 

From  August  to  November  Smith  was  kept 
prisoner  by  the  pirates  serving  an  odious  regime. 
When  English  boats  were  encountered  he  was  kept 
below  and  not  allowed  to  speak  on  pain  of  death, 
lest  his  identity  be  disclosed,  but  against  the  Span- 
ish or  other  foreigners  he  was  armed  and  made  to 
fight  for  his  captors.  Finding  them  little  inclined 
to  set  him  free  and  greatly  mistrusting  the  ultimate 
issue,  Smith  finally  took  reckless  measures  to  es- 
cape. At  the  end  of  such  a  storm  that  beat  them 
all  under  hatches,  he  watched  his  opportunity  to  get 
ashore  in  their  boat.  Under  cover  of  black  night 
he  secretly  got  into  the  dinghy,  armed  with  a  half 
pike,  and  put  adrift  for  Rat  lie:  but  says  the  narra- 


28     A   LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

live,  "the  Current  was  so  strong  and  the  Sea  so 
great,  I  went  a  drift  to  Sea,  till  it  pleased  God  the 
winde  so  turned  with  the  tide,  that  although  I  was, 
all  this  fearfull  night  of  gusts  and  raine,  in  the  Sea, 
the  space  of  twelve  houres,  when  many  ships  were 
driuen  ashore,  and  diuerse  split  (and  being  with 
sculling  and  bayling  the  water  tired)  at  last  I  ar- 
riued  in  an  oazie  He  by  Charowne;  where  certaine 
fowlers  found  mee  neere  drowned,  and  half  dead, 
with  water,  colde,  and  hunger." 

Upon  his  return  to  England  Smith  published  his 
narrative  with  his  map  of  the  coast,  and  upon  this 
chart  we  find  the  name,  New  England,  first  applied 
to  a  country  previously  known  to  the  English  as 
North  Virginia.  Prince  Charles  confirmed  the 
names  suggested  by  the  explorer  and  the  two  re- 
named the  principal  points  of  interest.  Some  of 
these  persist,  such  as  Plymouth  for  the  English 
town ;  the  river  Charles,  for  the  god-father  prince ; 
and  Cape  Ann,  or  Anna,  so  named  for  Charles' 
mother,  Anne  of  Denmark.  Smith's  first  name 
for  Cape  Ann  had  been  Tragabigzanda,  after  a 
Turkish  sweetheart  who  had  rescued  him  from 
slavery  in  Turkey. 

They  altered  Cape  Cod,  so  named  by  Gosnold, 
to  Cape  James  in  honour  of  the  king ;  called  the  har- 
bour Milford  Haven,  and  the  bay  Stuards  Bay,  to 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND       29 

immortalize  the  reigning  house  of  England.  And 
the  islands  now  known  as  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  con- 
stitute the  group  to  which  the  celebrated  navigator 
gave  his  own  name—  "  Smyth's  lies  are  a  heape  to- 
geather,  none  neere  them,  against  Accominticus " 
—  but,  as  an  old  book  puts  it,  the  ingratitude  of 
man  has  denied  his  memory  this  frail  tribute. 

Straitsmouth,  Thatcher's,  and  Milk  islands,  near 
Cape  Ann,  "  far  to  the  sea  in  regard  of  the  head- 
land," Smith  called  the  Three  Turks'  Heads  — the 
name  has  disappeared  except  for  an  inn  at  Land's 
End  which  holds  to  the  suggestive  title.  This  was 
in  memory  of  Smith's  youthful  adventure  at  the 
siege  of  Regall,  as  related  in  his  narrative,  when, 
having  enlisted  as  a  soldier  of  fortune,  he  won  the 
three  Turks'  heads  in  three  single  combats. 

The  Christians  had  encamped  at  Regall  and 
while  they  were  entrenching  themselves,  the  Turks, 
to  relieve  the  ennui  of  waiting,  sent  this  challenge 
to  any  captain  in  the  Christian  army:  "  That  to  de- 
light the  Ladies,  who  did  long  to  see  some  court- 
like  pastime,  the  Lord  Turbashaw  did  defie  any 
captaine,  that  had  the  command  of  a  Company, 
who  durst  combate  him  for  his  head."  The 
Christians  accepted  the  challenge  and  cast  lots  to 
decide  which  of  their  captains  should  enter  the  con- 
test. The  choice  fell  to  Captain  John  Smith  and 


30     A   LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

a  truce  was  arranged  while  the  assemblage  gathered 
to  see  the  joust. 

Turbashaw  entered  the  field  with  a  noise  of 
"Howboyes";  he  was  well  mounted  and  armed  and 
wore  a  pair  of  wings  made  of  eagles'  feathers 
"within  a  ridge  of  silver,  richly  garnished  with  gold 
and  precious  stones";  a  Janizary  before  him  bore 
his  lance  and  another  led  his  horse.  Smith,  with 
the  blare  of  trumpets,  only,  passed  with  courteous 
salute,  took  his  ground  and  upon  the  signal,  passed 
his  lance  "throw  the  sight  of  his  Beaver,  face,  head, 
and  all."  The  knight  fell  to  the  ground  and  Smith 
alighting  unbraced  the  other's  helmet  and  cut  off 
his  head,  while  the  Turks  took  his  body. 

Grulago,  as  the  narrative  says,  his  heart  swelled 
by  the  death  of  his  captain,  challenged  the  con- 
queror to  regain  Turbashaw's  head  or  lose  his  own. 
The  first  bout  with  lances  brought  accident  to 
neither  combatant;  then  with  pistols  Smith 
wounded  his  adversary's  left  arm,  so  that  he  was 
thrown  to  the  ground  and  so  bruised  by  the  fall 
that  he  too  lost  his  head. 

Whereupon  Smith  began  to  form  a  taste  for  the 
play  and  in  his  turn  challenged  any  Turk  to  come 
to  the  place  of  combat  to  redeem  in  the  same  man- 
ner, the  heads  of  his  companions.  This  was  ac- 
cepted by  Bonny-Mulgro  and  lances  and  pistols 


His  three  limtlr  Combats  Lnay 
Hi's  Encounter^ fvith 


PART   OF   THE   TRAVELS   OF    CAPT.   JOHN    SMITH    AMONGST   TURKES, 
TARTARS,  AND  OTHERS,  EXTRACTED  OUT  OF  THE    HISTORY   BY   JOHN   PAYN. 
HIS  ENCOUNTER   WITH   TURBASHAW. 

tfisiomhat  with.   GRVALGO-^Top*  of  tfirce/iundr^cf  fiorjmen 

C  nap  •  -7 


How  h  -w   BONNY^MVLGRO  £/io      •   7 


HOW   HE   SLEW   BONNY-MULGRO. 

THree  TVE.K  S,   fi^ads  in  a.  jydnnelr  qiuen  Kim  far  'Armes  .  L  kap   •  z 

mm '  'i -^— - — r-i — —- — -i '•<••  .-*• — ^^ *£ ' — ' t    "~ 


»R/m  Dr  jculjjht 

ILvn'TTe  ivtuTftrefntn    to  'Prints    JtiG&MVNDVS  .  C 

THREE  TURKS'   HEADS   IN   A   BANNER  GIVEN    HIM   FOR  ARMES, 
AND  HOW   HE  WAS   PRESENTED  TO  PRINCE   SIGISMUNDUS. 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND       31 

failing,  Smith  drew  upon  his  third  adversary  his 
Faulchion  and  "  pierced  the  Turke  so  under  the 
cutlets,  thorow  backe  and  body  that  although  he 
alighted  from  his  horse  he  stood  not  long  ere  hee 
lost  his  head  as  the  rest  had  done." 

This  success  gave  great  encouragement  to  the 
whole  army.  A  quaint  print  depicts  the  scene  in 
which  as  Smith  describes,  "with  a  guard  of  six 
thousand,  three  spare  horses,  before  each  a  Turke's 
head  upon  a  lance,  he  (Smith)  was  conducted  to 
the  Generall's  Pavillion  with  his  presents."  The 
heads  our  warrior  presented  to  Zachel  Moyses,  the 
general  of  the  army;  he  received  them  with  much 
respect,  as  the  occasion  deserved,  "embracing  him 
in  his  arms"  and  presenting  him  with  a  "fair  horse, 
richly  furnished,  a  Semitere  and  a  belt  worth  three 
hundred  ducats,"  in  addition  to  which  he  was  made 
Sergeant-Major  of  his  regiment. 

If  Smith's  explorations  and  discoveries  of  the 
New  England  coast  are  little  known  to  the  casual 
public,  those  of  the  sieur  dc  Champlain  are  even 
more  buried  in  obscurity;  yet  in  comparison  with 
the  careful,  methodical  work  of  the  French  ex- 
plorer in  this  region,  the  flying  visits  of  the  English 
to  this  coast  were  both  hasty  and  superficial.  Gos- 
nold  and  Pring,  who  preceded  Champlain,  had 
brought  back  only  vastly  entertaining  stories  of 


32     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

adventure  and  discursive  comment;  the  journal  of 
Weymouth,  who  was  on  the  coast  of  Maine  at  about 
the  same  time  as  Champlain,  is  local  and  indefinite ; 
Champlain's  exploration  of  the  New  England  coast, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  thorough  and  scientific,  and 
his  "  Voyages,"  in  soundness  and  in  richness  of  de- 
tail, stand  as  unrivalled  authority  in  the  field  of 
which  they  treat.  He  pictures  the  native  Indian  in 
his  primitive  simplicity  before  his  mode  of  life  had 
been  influenced  by  contact  with  European  civiliza- 
tion, which  gives  to  these  writings  a  preeminent 
importance  for  the  scholar. 

Champlain's  charts  and  descriptions  cover  over 
a  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast,  from  the  northeastern 
extremity  of  Nova  Scotia  to  the  Vineyard  Sound, 
below  Cape  Cod.  His  text  is  clear  and  lucid,  and 
rich  in  entertaining  detail.  Souvenirs  of  his  pas- 
sage are  rarely  left  in  the  occasional  French-derived 
names,  especially  in  Maine,  as  Mount  Desert,  called 
by  Champlain,  les  Monts  Deserts,  Saco  and  Ken- 
nebec,  from  Chouacoet  and  Qui  ni  be  quy,  the 
French  transcriptions  of  the  aboriginal  names. 
Following  the  coast  he  saw  the  verdant  tops  of  the 
long  belt  of  broken  ranges  which  form  the  north- 
eastern continuation  of  the  Appalachian  System, 
this  side  of  the  Hudson  River,  and  called  them  les 
monts  verts,  from  which  Vermont  takes  its  name. 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND     33 

Champlain  entered  Massachusetts  Bay  and  sailed 
into  Boston  Harbour,  anchoring  at  Noddle's  Is- 
land, now  East  Boston,  and  here  he  saw  his  first 
log  canoe  and  describes  how  it  was  made.  They 
saw  here  a  river,  fort  spacieuse,  undoubtedly  the 
Charles  at  its  confluence  with  the  Mystic,  and  this, 
in  honour  of  the  sieur  de  Monts  was  called  la  riviere 
du  Gas. 

In  addition  to  his  descriptions  of  the  coast  Cham- 
plain  made  numerous  topographical  drawings  of 
many  of  the  more  remarkable  places,  such  as  the 
harbour  of  Plymouth,  which  he  called  Port  du  Cap 
St.  Louys,  Nauset  and  Chatham  harbours,  Glouces- 
ter Harbour,  the  bay  of  Saco.  In  their  ensemble 
these  charts  constitute  a  more  complete  map  of 
New  England  than  was  made  for  many  years  after, 
serving  as  models  for  most  of  the  subsequent  maps 
of  the  coast  down  to  comparatively  recent  times. 
Upon  this  work  Champlain  spent  over  three  years, 
from  May,  1604,  to  September,  1607,  and  after  his 
return  to  France  prepared  his  elaborate  report  for 
King  Henri  IV,  illustrated  with  fifty-two  charts  in 
his  own  hand.  Such  work  fitted  in  with  that  intelli- 
gent monarch's  ambitions  as  one  of  the  builders  of 
France,  and  the  explorer  was  ennobled  for  his 
pains  and  retained  by  the  court.  In  one  of  his 
reports  Champlain  makes  the  first  recorded  sug- 


34    A  LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

gestion  of  the  practical  utility  of  a  ship  canal  across 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

Champlain's  work  was  typical  of  the  great  initia- 
tive of  his  nation;  he  laid  superb  foundations  for 
what  should  have  been  La  Nouvelle  France,  but  its 
development  was  left  to  others  and  the  superstruc- 
ture in  later  years  was  built  by  alien  hands. 

The  founders  of  New  England  were  English- 
men, intensely  English.  Their  immigration  began 
in  1620  with  the  tentative  voyage  of  the  May 
Flower,  struggled  for  foothold  during  the  first  nine 
years,  during  which  time  it  is  estimated  that  but 
seven  hundred  colonists  peopled  the  neighbourhood 
of  Plymouth  and  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  was  most 
active  through  the  eleven  years  that  Charles  I  ruled 
England  without  a  parliament,  and  practically 
ceased  after  the  year  1640,  when  the  total  popula- 
tion of  the  colonies  was  little  more  than  20,000  per- 
sons. A  glance  at  the  village  burying-grounds  of 
New  England,  showing  the  constant  recurrence  of 
familiar  names,  will  show  how  this  original  group 
multiplied  on  its  own  soil,  as  Palfrey  says,  in  re- 
markable seclusion.  During  a  period  of  almost 
two  hundred  years  their  identity  was  unimpaired. 
"  No  race  has  ever  been  more  homogeneous,"  says 
the  historian,  "  than  this  remained  down  to  the  time 
of  the  generation  now  upon  the  stage  (1858) .  With 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   ISLAND     35 

near  approach  to  precision  it  may  be  said  that  the 
millions  of  living  persons  either  born  in  New  Eng- 
land or  tracing  their  origin  to  natives  of  that  region, 
are  descendants  of  the  21,000  English  who  came 
over  before  the  early  emigration  ceased  upon  the 
meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament." 

The  chance  exceptions  took  no  root  upon  our 
soil  and  affected  little  the  homogeneous  environ- 
ment. Cromwell,  after  his  victories  at  Dunbar  and 
Worcester,  in  1652,  sent  a  few  hundred  Scottish 
prisoners  out  to  Boston,  but  their  descendants  are 
negligible.  About  one  hundred  and  fifty  French 
Huguenot  families  took  refuge  in  Massachusetts  in 
1685,  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
but  the  families  have  died  out,  though  here  and 
there  a  name  such  as  Revere,  Faneuil,  or  Bowdoin 
persists,  in  the  names  of  streets,  squares,  or  build- 
ings, to  recall  the  circumstance.  And  finally,  in 
1719,  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  received  one 
hundred  and  twenty  Scotch-Irish  families  as  set- 
tlers. But  even  to  this  day  foreigners  in  New  Eng- 
land remain  unassimilated,  though  they  flourish 
ever  so  briskly,  as  have  the  Irish  in  Boston. 

The  New  Englander,  by  inherent  exclusiveness, 
has  remained  a  singularly  unmixed  race,  the  more 
singular  since  it  springs  from  a  peculiar  type  of 
Englishman  of  the  seventeenth  century  —  the  Sep- 


36     A   LOITERER    IX    XEW   ENGLAND 

aratist,  the  Dissenter,  the  Puritan,  in  fine.  This 
matter,  as  Fiske  has  said,  comes  to  have  more  than 
a  local  interest  when  we  reflect  that  from  these  men 
have  come  at  least  one-fourth  of  the  present  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States.  Sequestered  from  for- 
eign contact,  these  people,  down  to  the  Revolution 
had  little  acquaintance  even  with  the  other  colo- 
nists in  this  country,  and  it  remained  for  that  great 
common  cause  to  bring  New  England  into  touch 
with  her  allied  communities  in  that  conflict. 

Emigrations  beyond  the  area  of  the  "  physical  re- 
gion "  were  almost  unknown  until  after  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  great  feeling 
for  expansion  throughout  the  continent  began  to 
drive  the  New  Englander  into  New  York  State 
and  through  the  Middle  West,  while  the  stimulus  of 
the  gold  fever  of  '49  carried  him  in  swarms  as  far 
as  the  Pacific  coast.  A  coloured  map  of  the  region 
now  occupied  by  the  expansion  of  the  New  English 
colonies  shows  how  that  mere  fringe  of  early  settled 
country  has  spread  in  an  almost  unbroken  tide  over 
the  entire  north  of  our  country,  carrying  its  names 
—  Springfield,  Salem,  Portland,  Quincy  —  to  the 
harbours  of  the  Pacific,  and  spotting  its  settlements 
along  the  borders  of  the  southern  states. 

At  the  same  time  the  development  of  the  natural 
resources  of  New  England  itself  —  its  quarries,  its 


THE    NEW   ENGLAND    ISLAND     37 

fisheries,  its  industries  operated  by  the  partial  har- 
nessing of  its  immense  water  power,  has  brought 
into  the  country  at  a  recent  date  literally  hordes  of 
foreigners  of  the  working  class,  and  these  in  places 
begin  to  dominate  the  population.     Still  the  New 
Englander  —  the  "native"  as  we  call  him  —  runs 
true  to  form;  he  holds  himself  aloof  and  refuses  to 
absorb  the  alien.    Absorption  of  the  native  by  the 
alien   is   of   course   impossible   and   many   of   the 
smaller  villages  exhibit  the  touching  spectacle  of  a 
frail  remnant  of  the  New  English  population  try- 
ing to  hold  out  against  the  overwhelming  invasion. 
Whole  villages  of  French  Canadians  have  grown 
up  through  the  central  part  of  Massachusetts  in  the 
suite  of  the  cotton  mills;  the  Cordage  works  at 
Plymouth  supports  a  large  town  of  Italian  em- 
ployes ;  the  Portuguese  have  their  stronghold  upon 
Cape  Cod ;  the  Swedes  and  Finns  form  a  formidable 
percentage  of  the  residents  on  Cape  Ann  and  exclu- 
sively operate  the  granite  quarries  of  that  exquisite 
section.     One  has  only  to  observe  a  fete  day  in 
Boston  to  see  the  ancient  Common  in  the  possession 
of  the  polyglots  from  the  North  End;  to  see  our 
Fourth  of  July  or  Memorial  Day  celebrated  with 
all  the  fanfare  of  the  mi-careme,  exploited  by  Irish 
orators,  while  a  fringe  of  wondering  descendants  of 
the  patriots  hesitates  without  the  railings,  or  lingers 


38     A   LOITERER    IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

upon  fragmentary  Bulfinch  balconies,  like  ghosts 
at  a  feast. 

What  does  it  mean?  Where  will  it  end?  Can 
it  be  that  a  few  more  turns  of  the  kaleidoscope,  the 
passing  of  a  mere  generation  or  two  will  see  all  that 
quaint,  typical  flavour  of  the  true  New  Englander 
modified,  irretrievably  changed  by  the  alien  in- 
trusion ? 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   JUMPING-ON    PLACE:    PROV- 
INCETOWN 

ALL  things  considered  the  most  logical  and  ro- 
mantic port  of  entry  into  New  England  is  the  old 
way,  known  to  the  early  navigators  of  history  - 
through  the  harbour  of  Cape  Cod.  We,  in  our  nar- 
row landsman  fashion,  are  wont  to  think  of  Prov- 
incetown,  at  the  tip  end  of  the  Cape,  as  the  literal 
jumping-off  place  of  the  continent.  For  us  it  lies 
isolated  at  the  end  of  an  extremely  wearisome  rail- 
way, operated,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year, 
by  but  two  trains  daily,  which  leave  its  opposing 
termini  at  the  crack  of  dawn,  pass  each  other  about 
midday,  and  get  back  to  cover  some  time  in  the 
watches  of  the  night. 

There  is  a  strong  affinity  between  the  Cape  train 
and  the  old  stage  coach  which  it  displaces.  Formerly 
the  terminus  of  the  "Cape  Cod  Railway"  was  at 
Sandwich  —  the  beginning  of  the  Cape.  One  took 
the  cars  for  Sandwich  and  thence  made  the  rest  of 
the  journey,  a  matter  of  some  sixty-five  miles,  by 
easy  stages  in  a  rumbling  vehicle  over  heavy  sand 

39 


40     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

roads,  to  Provincetown,  the  most  bizarre  of  New 
England  villages,  tucked  away  in  the  innermost 
curve  of  the  spiral  turn  of  the  peninsula. 

Thoreau,  in  his  matchless  work  on  Cape  Cod,  has 
left  us  a  homely  picture  of  stage  coach  travel  there 
in  1849.  He  speaks  of  the  broad  and  invulnerable 
good  humour  of  the  passengers:  "  They  were  what 
is  called  free  and  easy,  and  met  one  another  to  ad- 
vantage as  men  who  had  at  length  learned  how  to 
live.  They  appeared  to  know  each  other  when  they 
were  strangers,  they  were  so  simple  and  downright. 
They  were  well  met,  in  an  unusual  sense,  that  is, 
they  met  as  well  as  they  could  meet,  and  did  not 
seem  to  be  troubled  with  any  impediment.  They 
were  not  afraid  nor  ashamed  of  one  another,  but 
were  contented  to  make  just  such  a  company  as  the 
ingredients  allowed." 

Things  on  the  Cape  have  changed  very  little  since 
Thoreau's  day,  and  the  lumbering  accommodation 
train  is  but  an  amplified  stage  coach  in  all  its  essen- 
tial characteristics.  I  happened  to  take  it  from 
Boston  late  one  afternoon  in  the  month  of  October, 
when  the  state  fair  was  on  in  Brockton.  We  were 
listed  as  an  express  to  Middleboro,  but  this  appar- 
ently was  optional  and  at  the  discretion  of  the  con- 
ductor—  or  may  indeed  have  been  provided  for  in 
one  of  those  tantalizing  little  footnotes  to  the  time 


THE   JUMPING-ON   PLACE         41 

table  which  seem  designed  to  trip  the  unwary 
traveller  in  New  England. 

I  could  imagine  these  train  schedules  to  he  the 
chef  d'aeuvre  of  some  body  of  retired  school  teachers, 
long  practised  in  the  art  of  trapping  scholars.  I 
remember  reading  joyfully  Jerome  K.  Jerome's 
description  of  the  intricacies  of  the  Continental  time 
tables,  of  the  "demon  expresses  that  arrive  at  their 
destinations  forty-seven  minutes  before  they  start 
and  leave  again  before  they  get  there."  But  these 
trains  are  frankly  mystifying,  whereas  the  Old  Col- 
ony schedules  appear  at  first  glance  very  simple, 
the  pitfalls  being  artfully  concealed  by  ingenious 
devices. 

Trains  scheduled  clearly  to  depart  daily  at  the 
top  of  the  column  are  qualified  in  various  ways  by 
numerous  tiny  letters  tucked  in  here  and  there  in 
out-of-the-way  places,  each  one  having  a  separate 
and  vital  significance,  explained  in  a  kind  of  glos- 
sary at  the  back  of  the  volume.  After  making  an 
heroic  effort  to  catch  a  train  plainly  indicated  as 
due  at  a  given  time  it  is  rather  maddening  to  have 
that  train  either  fail  to  turn  up  at  all  or  glide  by  at 
full  speed  before  one's  baffled  expectancy ;  the  more 
so  when  turning  to  the  one  available  official,  that 
laconic  functionary  points  to  an  adroitly  hidden 
"  q,"  which  may  mean  that  the  train  does  not  make 


42     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

this  stop  on  this  particular  day  of  the  month,  or  that 
it  is  a  special  for  the  first  and  third  Saturdays  dur- 
ing August,  or  that  it  does  not  run  at  all  after  the 
first  of  September,  though  it  continues  to  appear  on 
the  winter  schedule. 

Just  as  I  was  settling  down  to  a  peaceful  perusal 
of  my  books  and  papers,  in  the  expansive  freedom 
of  a  whole  seat  to  myself  in  a  comparatively  empty 
car,  with  an  hour  of  daylight  before  we  were  due  to 
encounter  the  unknown  at  Middleboro,  the  train 
gave  a  succession  of  short,  sharp  shocks  and  came 
to  a  trembling  and  apparently  unpremeditated 
halt,  and  behold  Brockton,  its  platform  thronged 
by  an  eager  crowd  pressing  towards  the  ends  of  the 
cars,  and  in  upon  our  quiet  streamed  the  motley 
trippers,  sated  with  the  joys  and  excitements  of  the 
fair,  filling  the  train  to  its  capacity,  bulging  over 
into  the  aisles,  joking,  laughing,  recounting  the 
news  of  a  large  day,  and  disposing  of  their  numer- 
ous and  bulky  packages  in  the  racks  overhead  or 
piling  them  upon  capacious  laps  until  one  was  quite 
submerged  and  dwarfed  by  them. 

Yet  Thoreau  was  still  right  —  they  were  free  and 
easy,  but  they  met  one  another  to  advantage.  They 
appeared  to  know  me  though  I  was  a  stranger,  they 
were  so  simple  and  downright.  They  were  not 
afraid  nor  ashamed  of  one  another,  but  were  con- 


THE   JUMPING-ON    PLACE         43 

tented  to  make  just  such  a  company  as  the  ingre- 
dients allowed. 

As  the  train  wandered  down  the  Cape  with  in- 
cessant stops  there  was  no  cessation  in  the  talk  or 
in  the  movement.  We  were  all  acquainted  now 
and  there  was  an  endless  swapping  of  places  and 
readjustment  of  families  and  packages.  At  every 
station  the  fatherly  conductor  would  descend  metic- 
ulously and  announce  sonorously  and  with  pre- 
cision that  this  was  the  train  for  Buzzards  Bay, 
Barnstable,  Yarmouth,  Provincetown,  and  all  "sta- 
shuns"  down  Cape.  It  became  a  kind  of  chant, 
and  the  assurance  from  such  reliable  authority  that 
this  was  indeed  the  Cape  train,  never  failed  of  its 
impressiveness  to  those  who  had  waited  long  for  its 
coming. 

Hearty  farewells  delayed  us  still  further,  but 
who  would  have  cut  them  short  ?  It  was  all  part  of 
the  experience.  Every  time  we  slowed  up  at  a 
station,  big  or  little,  we  made  our  effect  —  for  this 
was  the  event  of  the  evening  in  Cape  Cod.  We 
brought  the  news  of  the  outside  world,  and  while 
mothers,  fathers,  sweethearts,  and  wives  were  being 
kissed  and  welcomed  home  again,  half  the  train 
would  be  hanging  out  of  the  windows  shouting 
greetings  to  neighbouring  villagers,  the  regulars 
taking  up  conversation  where  they  had  left  it  in 


44     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

the  morning;  and  the  train  men  would  hustle  the 
heavy  hags  out  of  the  mail  coach  and  heave  the 
bundles  of  evening  papers  to  the  waiting  trucks, 
the  while  themselves  exchanging  civilities  with 
friends  and  relatives  and  despite  the  austerity  of 
their  uniforms  turning  out  to  be  quite  as  human 
as  the  rest. 

Every  station  saw  the  departure  of  a  consider- 
able group,  and  at  each  in  the  descending  scale,  we 
took  aboard  a  less  number  of  transients,  yet  we  did 
not  thin  out  perceptibly  until  we  had  arrived  at  the 
first  of  the  divers  Brewsters,  between  Yarmouth 
and  Orleans.  By  this  time  night  had  descended  in 
full  force  and  we  seemed  to  be  drawn,  by  the  elimi- 
nation of  the  landscape  and  by  the  feeble  light  of  the 
car,  concentrated  in  spots  along  the  ceiling,  into  a 
closer  intimacy  —  the  darkness  without  shutting  us 
within  the  circle  of  our  own  light. 

From  time  to  time  the  wind  would  dash  the  sand, 
through  which  we  were  travelling,  with  a  sharp  hiss- 
ing sound,  against  the  sides  of  the  car  or  upon  the 
windows.  Looking  out,  one's  view  was  confined  to 
the  small  zone  illuminated  by  the  light  from  the 
windows;  but  the  air  kept  freshening  and  one 
sensed  the  proximity  of  the  sea  though  one  could 
not  see  it.  Sometimes  we  appeared  to  dash  through 
scrubby  woods  and  there  would  be  the  scent  of  the 


PROV1XCETOWN    HARHOTR    AM)    RAILROAD   WHARF. 


THE  FISHING   FLEET  AT 
ANCHOR   NEAR   RAILROAD 
WHARF. 


THE    JUMPING-ON    PLACE          45 

pines  and  the  bayberry  bushes.  Always  wilder 
and  more  trackless  seemed  the  way. 

Within  the  vehicle  many  were  sleeping;  others 
were  munching  portions  of  cold  lunches  put  up  in 
view  of  the  certainty  of  delay,  and  as  the  guard,  in 
his  pleasant  vernacular,  roared  "Brewster,"  against 
the  swish  of  the  sand,  the  rattle  of  the  wheels  over 
the  rails,  and  the  shrieking  of  the  engine,  a  sleepy 
voice  inquired  with  drollery:  "How  many  more 
Brewsters  have  we  got  to  go  through?"  "I  don't 
know,"  a  woman  answered,  "but  I  dread  the 
Truros ! "  It  is  true  that  we  seemed  to  box  the 
compass  in  Truro  before  we  got  clear  of  the  town- 
ship. 

Our  sandiest  stretch  lay  between  the  last  Truro 
and  Provincetown  —  Truro  and  "Cape  Cod,"  as 
the  old  writers,  since  Captain  Gosnold,  designate 
this  finisterre,  that  region  of  sand  dunes  north  and 
west  of  the  abrupt  termination  of  the  highlands  of 
the  Cape.  We  could  see  both  the  Highland  Light 
at  High  Head  in  Truro,  on  the  ocean  side  and  the 
gleam  from  the  small  lighthouse  on  Long  Point, 
which  guards  the  entrance  to  the  harbour,  from  the 
same  side  of  the  train  as  we  pushed  along  through 
the  scrubby  woods  planted  throughout  its  length  to 
protect  the  railroad  from  the  encroaching  dunes. 
This  will  illustrate  the  spiral  bending  of  the  land 


46     A    LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

from  Pamet  River  to  Long  Point  enclosing  the 
harbour,  which  from  every  point  of  the  compass  is 
completely  land  locked. 

Arrived  at  last  the  engine  gave  a  shuddering  sigh 
and  came  to  rest  before  a  small  station  and  a  very 
long  platform,  while  the  track  continued  on  out 
across  the  main  street  to  the  end  of  railroad  wharf 
far  out  into  the  harbour,  to  connect  with  the  boats, 
making  as  it  were,  a  kind  of  endless  chain  of  com- 
merce. 

Though  everybody  in  Provincetown  had  waited 
up  for  the  arrival  of  the  train,  short  work  was 
made  of  the  business  of  coming  to  port.  The  few 
new  arrivals  were  met  and  hurried  to  snug  quarters ; 
a  little  wagon  received  the  mail  bags,  and  boys  with 
pushcarts  attended  to  the  transference  of  the  even- 
ing papers  from  the  train  to  the  small  village  shop 
on  the  main  street  which  now  became  the  centre  of 
attraction.  The  boys  were  followed  through  the 
short  cut  to  the  paper  shop  by  the  entire  attendance 
from  the  train  spectacle,  their  way  impeded  by  the 
eager  crowd  who  behaved  very  much  as  chickens  do 
when  they  see  their  food  held  high  by  the  adminis- 
tering human  at  meal  time,  their  whole  attention 
centred  on  the  main  chance.  Within  the  shop  en- 
sued an  undignified  scuffle  for  the  papers,  doled 
out,  however,  by  a  rigorously  impartial  hand. 


THE   JUMPING-ON    PLACE         47 

At  the  same  moment  impelled  by  the  same  thirst 
for  news  —  the  only  thirst  that  may  be  slaked  in 
Provincetown  —  the  fishermen  began  to  come  up 
out  of  the  sea,  their  rubber  boots  chuncking  down 
the  long  wharf.  These  had  a  great  advantage  over 
the  landsmen  in  being  able  to  watch  the  progress  of 
the  train  by  its  line  of  smoke  against  the  sky  from 
way  beyond  Puritan  Heights  and  to  calculate  to  the 
minute  the  time  of  its  arrival  and  thus  avoid  spend- 
ing any  more  time  than  absolutely  necessary  in  a 
town  for  which  they,  as  connoisseurs  of  ports,  have 
a  mild  contempt.  "  I  would  n't  change  my  clothes 
to  go  ashore  in  Provincetown,"  a  Gloucester  fisher- 
man told  me,  taking  his  exercise,  in  his  fishing  out- 
fit, at  the  end  of  the  railroad  wharf ;  and  so,  luckily, 
they  do  not,  and  Provincetown,  above  most  fishing 
villages,  gets  the  full  local  colour  of  its  chief  indus- 
try—  the  oil  skins,  the  sou'westers,  hip  boots,  and 
picturesque  equipment  in  general  lending  to  the 
town  a  distinctive  character. 

For  about  half  an  hour  after  the  arrival  of  the 
evening  train  Provincetown  wears  the  false  aspect 
of  a  busy  metropolis.  Men  stand  under  the  lights 
that  stream  from  high  shop  windows,  to  scan  the 
headlines  of  their  evening  papers  while  waiting  for 
the  final  excitement  of  the  day  —  the  sorting  and 
distribution  of  the  mail.  The  rival  movies  which 


let  out  at  about  this  time  add  to  the  congestion  of 
the  narrow  sidewalk  and  the  released  audience  con- 
gregates at  the  post  office,  already  filled  with  hope- 
ful letter  seekers,  lined  up  before  the  blankness  of 
the  closed  window,  or  peering  critically  through  the 
pigeon  holes  at  the  harried  clerks,  like  expert  card 
sharks  watching  the  clumsy  efforts  of  an  inex- 
perienced dealer,  and  itching  to  get  a  hand  at  it 
themselves. 

The  newcomer  by  the  night  train  might  suppose 
himself  landed  in  a  very  lively  little  place  until  he 
has  seen  the  rapid  reabsorption  of  the  sudden  crowd. 
The  night  seems  to  soak  up  the  villagers  like  a 
sponge;  into  their  homes  they  go  like  the  blowing 
out  of  lights ;  the  sailors  and  fishermen  drop  off  the 
ends  of  wharves,  row  out  to  their  ships  in  the  twink- 
ling harbour,  their  voices  and  the  thug-thug  of  the 
oars  against  the  wooden  thole  pins  striking  hollow 
and  echoless  upon  the  ear  long  after  their  black  ac- 
cents are  lost  in  the  enveloping  dark.  Perhaps  the 
whole  thing  most  resembles  a  scene  from  grand 
opera,  where  the  ever  ready  chorus  at  a  given  signal 
streams  upon  the  bare  stage,  animating  every  de- 
tail of  its  factitious  setting,  only  to  fade  away  again 
nobody  knows  whither,  at  the  voice  of  the  prompter. 

Thus  Provincetown  viewed  inversely  from  the 
land  lubber's  standpoint  —  a  tiny  terminus  town  at 


THE   JUMPING-ON   PLACE         49 

the  tip  of  an  irregular  peninsula,  pulled  out  from 
the  southeastern  extremity  of  New  England  east- 
erly into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  for  forty  miles,  bent 
round  at  nearly  a  right  angle  to  hold  the  lower  basin 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  thence  extending  north- 
erly thirty-five  miles,  with  a  gentle  list  to  the  west, 
where  its  final  strip  of  tapering  sands  vanishes  in 
north  latitude  42°  4'. 

Everything  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  In- 
accessible by  land,  to  those  who  sail  the  seas  Prov- 
incetown  lies  on  one  of  the  broad  highways  of  com- 
merce, and  "  he  is  lucky,"  says  Thoreau,  "  who  does 
not  run  afoul  of  it  in  the  dark."  Sailors  from  all 
quarters  of  the  globe  touch  there  in  the  course  of 
the  year  —  all  languages  and  many  patois  are  heard 
at  the  end  of  railroad  wharf  —  strange  ships  dip 
anchor  from  time  to  time  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbour. 


CHAPTER  III 

CAPE    COD:   EXPLORATION   AND 
DISCOVERY 

THE  adventurers  of  remoter  centuries  found 
Provincetown  directly  in  the  way  of  navigation,  and 
most  of  those  who  visited  these  shores  were  caught 
by  the  long  projecting  hook  of  the  Cape,  and  gath- 
ered ashore,  at  least  briefly,  at  this  spot.  From 
the  mythical  visits  of  the  Norsemen,  in  1004,  down 
to  1620,  when  the  May  Flower  strayed  into  this 
harbour,  in  quest  of  a  suitable  place  to  plant  her 
colony,  we  find  scarce  an  explorer  of  note  but  left 
some  record  of  encountering  Cape  Cod  in  his  voy- 
age of  discovery  to  the  new  world. 

We  know  that  Verrazzano,  Hudson,  Gosnold, 
Champlain,  De  Monts,  Martin  Pring,  and  Captain 
John  Smith,  at  least,  and  possibly  two  Icelandic 
navigators  saw  Cape  Cod  before  the  Pilgrim 
mothers  did  their  first  washing  at  Provincetown. 
The  chances  are  also  that  there  were  others,  even  be- 
fore Columbus  came,  for  when  John  Cabot  disclosed 
to  Europe  his  tale  of  the  abundance  of  codfish  at 
Newfoundland,  in  1497,  he  mentions  the  fact  that 

.50 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY     51 

the  natives  called  the  cod  "  baccalaos,"  a  name  ap- 
plied to  that  fish  by  the  seamen  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay 
long  before  the  Genoese  navigator  sailed  on  his 
voyage  of  discovery. 

Cabot's  news  of  the  great  fish  supply  across  the 
Atlantic  gave  an  impetus  to  navigation.  Extra 
fast  days  were  created  to  encourage  the  fisheries  by 
increasing  the  consumption  of  sea  food.  No  meat 
was  allowed  any  one  on  fast  days,  which  before  the 
Reformation  in  England  made  up  nearly  one-third 
of  the  year.  The  voyages  of  the  Cortoreals  to  the 
northeast  coast  of  America,  in  1500  and  following 
years,  though  unsuccessful  in  the  avowed  purpose, 
which  was  to  find  the  mythical  northwest  passage 
to  the  Indies,  awakened  Spain  to  the  commercial 
possibilities  of  the  American  fisheries,  and  brought 
many  Spanish  sailors  to  our  coast.  The  chart  of 
the  Portuguese  pilot,  Reinal,  ascribed  to  the  year 
1503,  bears  witness  to  the  activities  of  Portugal  at 
these  shores.  According  to  local  tradition  the  banks 
of  Newfoundland  were  discovered  by  the  fishermen 
of  Normandy  and  Brittany  before  1492,  while  we 
have  authentic  record  of  Breton  ships  there  as  early 
as  1504;  and,  as  an  enduring  memorial  of  the  early 
voyages  of  the  mariners  of  Dieppe,  Honfleur,  Saint 
Malo  and  other  French  ports,  to  the  grand  banks 
and  their  vicinity,  France  has  left  us  the  name  of 


52     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

Cape  Breton  Island.  It  is  fairly  certain  that  Cape 
Breton  had  this  name  before  the  voyages  of  Cartier 
or  Champlain. 

While  in  the  Catholic  countries  it  continued  to 
grow  apace,  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  proved  dis- 
astrous to  the  budding  fishing  industry  of  England. 
With  the  excessive  ardour  of  converts,  the  newly 
made  Protestants,  anxious  to  discard  every  vestige 
of  their  former  faith,  banished  fish  from  their  tables, 
regarding  it  with  suspicion  as  a  papistic  symbol, 
and  meat  was  ostentatiously  displayed  even  on 
Fridays  and  in  Lent.  As  a  result  the  fishing  indus- 
try suffered  to  so  great  an  extent  that  wrhile  France 
was  sending  annually  some  five  hundred  vessels 
to  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  even  the  home 
fisheries  of  the  English  coast  were  abandoned  to 
foreigners. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry's  succes- 
sor, 1548,  parliament  enacted  its  first  measure  of 
encouragement  to  the  English  fisheries.  This  im- 
posed heavy  fines  upon  all  persons  who  should  eat 
flesh  on  fish  days,  and  at  the  same  time  the  New- 
foundland fishery  was  thrown  open  without  exac- 
tions. Under  Elizabeth  still  more  privileges  were 
granted  the  fishermen.  They  were  allowed  to  ex- 
port their  products  free  of  customs,  and  an  em- 
bargo was  laid  on  fishing  boats  of  foreign  ports 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY    53 

anchoring  on  the  coast  or  interfering  in  the  waters 
claimed  by  the  English. 

These  measures  were  mainly  at  the  instigation  of 
Cecil,  the  queen's  minister,  who  thus  sought  to  re- 
establish the  prestige  of  the  English  maritime 
towns,  which  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  decadence. 
Behind  it  all  lay  England's  crying  need  of  trained 
mariners  to  protect  her  trade,  which  through  negli- 
gence was  slipping  into  foreign  hands,  and  of  the 
rudiments  of  a  navy  against  the  augmenting  force 
of  the  French  marines. 

Preserved  amongst  the  Cecil  manuscripts  is  a 
long  letter  from  Thomas  Barnaby,  a  merchant,  one 
of  the  foreign  agents  of  Edward  VI,  in  which,  writ- 
ing to  Lord  Burghley,  he  pictures  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  French  and  English  commerce  in  the  year 
1552,  and  urges  upon  the  secretary  of  state  the  im- 
portance of  certain  measures  of  preparation  to 
"  distress  the  French." 

'  There  is  more  Maryners  in  one  Towne  there," 
he  states,  "  then  is  here  from  the  Lands  End  to  S. 
Michels  Mount.  I  have  sene  come  out  at  one  tyde 
in  Diep  five  hundred  and  five  Botes  and  in  every 
Bote  ten  or  twelve  men.  The  which  was  marvel- 
lous to  se  how  they  be  maintayned  by  Fyshing  and 
what  Riches  they  get  out  of  the  Sea  and  how  they 
mayntain  their  Towns  and  Ports.  As  for  us  let 


54    A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

us  begin  at  Sandwich  and  go  to  Dover,  Hyde,  and 
Hastings  and  to  Winchelsea  and  se  how  they  go 
down  for  lack  of  maintenance  and  in  a  maner  no 
Mariners  in  them." 

He  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  even  English 
coal  was  transported  wholly  in  French  vessels  and 
urges  that  the  king  take  the  coals  into  his  own 
hands  (as  the  French  king  had  taken  salt)  and 
bring  them  into  Kent  and  there  make  a  staple  of 
them ;  and  that  no  goods  whatsoever  should  be  car- 
ried out  of  England  "  but  in  English  bottoms."  By 
this  means  he  said  "  an  infinite  number  of  mariners 
would  be  set  to  work  and  it  would  prove  a  great 
strength  to  the  Realm." 

When  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  arrived  at  New- 
foundland, in  1583,  with  a  charter  for  colonization, 
and  took  possession  of  that  country  in  the  name  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  as  an  unknown  land,  he  found 
there  thirty-six  vessels  of  other  nations  engaged  in 
catching  fish;  while  the  year  that  Sir  Francis  Drake 
sailed  from  England  on  his  famous  world  tour,  over 
three  hundred  ships  in  the  harbours  of  Europe 
weighed  anchor  and  quietly  departed  to  fish  in 
American  waters.  Before  the  pioneer  voyages  of 
Gosnold,  Champlain,  Smith  and  the  rest  had  been 
heralded  throughout  the  land  or  recorded  in  the 
archives  of  kings,  the  hardy  fishermen  of  western 


CHATHAM   BEACH. 

FROM   A   WOOD   BLOCK    PRINT   1!Y    MARGARET   PATTERSON". 


•>ur 

••;  v- 
•. 


THE  BEACH    AT  CHATHAM. 

1  ROM    A    WOOD   HI.OCK   PRINT   BY    MARGARET   PATTERSON. 


EXPLORATION   AND  DISCOVERY     55 

Europe  had  made  thousands  of  trips  across  the  At- 
lantic with  little  thought  of  the  perils  of  their  voy- 
ages and  scarcely  a  written  word  to  chronicle  their 
deeds. 

If  navigation  stimulated  the  fisheries,  so  the 
fisheries  in  turn  stimulated  navigation.  Nor  was 
fish  the  only  commodity  sought  by  the  intrepid 
visitors  to  these  shores.  Sassafras  as  often  made 
the  desired  cargo,  its  roots  selling  at  three  shillings 
the  pound  in  England  and  greatly  valued  as  a  medi- 
cine in  these  early  days  of  American  history.  Found 
in  abundance  along  the  coast  from  Canada  to 
Florida,  in  the  South  it  takes  possession,  along  with 
the  persimmon  tree,  of  abandoned  fields.  Its  uses 
to  the  English  were  many.  The  bark  of  its  twigs 
and  the  pith  are  officinal,  affording  a  mucilaginous 
application  used  by  oculists;  the  oil  distilled  from 
the  root  makes  a  powerful  aromatic  stimulant  much 
used  in  flavouring  and  as  a  basis  for  the  perfume  of 
soaps.  Sassafras  tea  was  a  famous  remedy  for 
colds,  and  a  decoction  of  the  bark  was  supposed  to 
cure  malaria,  from  which  came  its  early  name  in 
England  —  the  ague  tree. 

It  was  partly  speculation  in  sassafras  that 
brought  Bartholomew  Gosnold  to  this  coast  in  1602. 
He  came  quietly  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  with 
his  friend  Bartholomew  Gilbert,  a  son  of  Sir  Hum- 


56     A   LOITERER    IX    NEW   EXGLAXD 

phrey  Gilbert  (Raleigh's  half-brother)  in  command 
of  the  Concord,  a  vessel  chartered  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  but  unknown  to  the  latter,  to  whom  Eliza- 
beth had  granted  the  exclusive  right  of  English 
trade  with  this  part  of  the  world.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed that  they  chose  this  region  because  it  had 
not  before  been  explored  by  English  sailors  and 
because  they  sailed  without  a  licence.  Had  they 
succeeded  in  returning  undetected  to  England  the 
details  of  their  voyage  might  never  have  been 
made  public. 

Gosnold's  tentative  scheme  for  planting  a  colony 
was  probably  a  blind  to  the  ulterior  motive  of  the 
voyage,  which,  from  the  accounts,  seems  to  have 
been  strictly  commercial.  At  all  events,  being  but 
ill  equipped  both  in  numbers  and  in  character  for 
settlement  the  whole  party  returned,  heavily  laden 
with  sassafras,  whereupon  a  sudden  drop  in  the 
price  of  that  commodity  aroused  Raleigh's  suspi- 
cions, and  investigation  soon  brought  their  cargo  to 
light.  As  some  nobles,  prominent  at  the  court  of 
Elizabeth,  were  implicated  to  the  extent  of  having 
taken  shares  in  the  venture,  Raleigh,  in  order  to 
avert  public  scandal,  allowed  the  report  to  go  out 
that  he  had  authorized  the  voyage. 

However  contemptible  may  have  been  his  motive, 
Gosnold  emerges  from  his  adventure  with  the  halo 


EXPLORATION    AND   DISCOVERY     .57 

of  a  true  discoverer  about  his  head  and  no  questions 
asked.  Xot  only  is  he  the  generally  accredited  dis- 
coverer of  Cape  Cod  —  to  which  he  gave  its  name- 
his  was  the  first  attempt  by  the  English  to  make  a 
settlement  within  the  limits  of  New  England.  Thus 
much  capital  was  made  of  his  venture  that  "A 
Brief e  and  true  Relation  of  the  Difcouerie  of  the 
North  part  of  Virginia"  written  by  M.  lohn  Brere- 
ton,  one  of  the  voyage,  and  published  Londini  by 
Geor.  Bifhop,  in  1602,  was  circulated  with  the  ap- 
proval of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  the  hope  of  inter- 
esting persons  of  influence  to  subscribe  towards  the 
outfit  of  a  second  expedition  to  this  locality. 

Though  it  did  not  achieve  its  purpose  single 
handed,  yet  we  have  Captain  John  Smith's  word 
for  it  that  it  was  Brereton's  narrative  which  stirred 
in  him  the  desire  for  similar  American  adventures 
and  led  him  to  join  the  colony  which  came  to  James- 
town in  1606. 

Gabriel  Archer,  "  a  gentleman  in  said  voyage/ 
wrote  a  second  relation,  dealing  more  particularly 
with  the  temporary  settlement  at  Cuttyhunk;  but 
Brereton  gives  the  more  thrilling  story  and  the 
more  picturesque  facts.  His  was  the  first  English 
book  relating  to  New  England.  To  it  was  "an- 
nexed a  Treatise  of  M.  Edward  Ha?/es,  containing 
important  inducements  for  the  planting  in  thofe 


parts,  and  finding  a  paffage  that  way  to  the  South 
fea,  and  China"  Both  accounts  of  the  voyage 
were  republished  by  Samuel  Purchas  in  his  "  Pil- 
grimes"  (London,  1625). 

Brereton's  account,  addressed  to  the  Honourable 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Kt.,  Captaine  of  her  Maiesties 
Guards,  Lord  Warden  of  the  Stanneries,  Lieu- 
tenant of  Cornwall,  and  Gouernour  of  the  Isle  of 
Jersey,  as  well  as  Archer's  "relations"  fix  the  date 
of  the  departure  of  this  expedition  from  England 
as  Friday,  the  twenty-sixth  day  of  March,  1602. 
Archer  is  more  meticulous  as  to  chronology,  but 
both  give  the  four  important  dates,  which,  curi- 
ously enough,  fell  each  upon  a  Friday,  so  that  the 
whole  voyage  was  encompassed  within  an  even 
seventeen  weeks. 

They  set  sail  from  Falmouth,  "being  in  all  two 
&  thirtie  persons,"  "whereof  eight  mariners  and 
sailors,  twelve  purposing  upon  the  discovery  to  re- 
turn with  the  ship  for  England,  the  rest  to  remain 
there  for  population  "  (I  quote  from  both  writers) . 
Their  "  barke "  was  the  Concord,  of  Dartmouth, 
and  they  held  a  course  for  the  north  part  of  Vir- 
ginia, as  the  first  explorers  to  our  coast  called  New 
England.  In  so  doing  they  profited  somewhat  by 
the  recorded  experience  of  Verrazzano,  the  de- 
scription of  whose  voyage  for  the  king  of  France, 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY     59 

in  1524,  had  been  translated  into  English  by  Hak- 
luyt  for  his  Divers  Voyages,  which  was  printed 
in  1582. 

Brereton  reads  easily  that  "although  by  chance 
the  wind  fououred  vs  not  at  first  as  we  wished,  but 
inforced  vs  so  farre  to  the  Southward,  as  we  fell 
with  S.  Marie,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Acores 
(which  was  not  much  out  of  our  way)  yet  holding 
our  course  directly  from  thence,  we  made  our 
iourney  shorter  (than  hitherto  accustomed)  by  the 
better  part  of  a  thousand  leagues,  yet  were  wee 
longer  in  our  passage  than  we  expected ;  which  hap- 
pened, for  that  our  barke  being  weake,  we  were 
loth  to  presse  her  with  much  saile;  also,  our  sailors 
being  few,  and  they  none  of  the  best,  we  bare  (ex- 
cept in  faire  weather)  but  low  saile;  besides,  our 
going  vpon  an  unknown  coast,  made  vs  not  oner- 
bold  to  stand  in  with  the  shore,  but  in  open  weather ; 
which  caused  vs  to  be  certaine  daies  in  sounding,  be- 
fore we  discouered  the  coast,  the  weather  being  by 
chance,  somewhat  foggie.  But  on  Friday,  the  four- 
teenth of  May,  early  in  the  morning  we  made  the 
land,  being  full  of  faire  trees,  the  land  somewhat 
low,  certeine  hummocks  or  hilles  lying  into  the 
land,  the  shore  ful  of  white  sand,  but  very  stony  or 
rocky." 

Authorities  differ  as  to  what  land  this  may  have 


60     A   LOITERER   IX    NEW   EXGLAXD 

been.  It  has  been  variously  identified  as  Cape 
Neddock  and  other  parts  of  the  coast  of  Maine; 
Williamson  thinks  it  could  not  have  been  south  of 
the  central  Isle  of  Shoals,  while  Belknap  names  it 
the  south  side  of  Cape  Ann. 

Archer's  more  detailed  description  of  the  ap- 
proach and  of  the  soundings,  to  which  Brereton 
refers  but  briefly,  tells  us  that  on  the  twenty-third 
of  April  the  ocean  appeared  yellow,  but  upon  tak- 
ing up  some  of  the  water  in  a  bucket  "it  altered 
not  either  in  color  or  taste  from  the  sea  azure."  On 
the  eighth  of  May  "the  water  changed  to  a  yellow- 
ish green,  where  at  seventy  fathoms,"  they  "had 
ground."  The  ninth  they  found  upon  their  lead 
"  many  glittering  stones,"  "  which  might  promise 
some  mineral  matter  at  the  bottom."  This  is  in- 
teresting as  recent  analysis  of  the  sand  of  Cape 
Cod  has  discovered  seventeen  different  kinds  of 
stones  —  jasper,  topaz,  tourmaline,  and  amethyst. 

At  this  first  stopping  place  on  the  Xew  Eng- 
land coast  occurred  one  of  the  thrilling  adventures 
of  the  trip.  Both  historians  speak  of  it  in  pic- 
turesque fashion  and  create  for  us  a  remarkable 
picture.  "  And  standing  faire  alongst  by  the  shore, 
about  twelue  of  the  clock  the  same  day,"  says 
Brereton,  "we  came  to  anker,  where  sixe  Indians, 
in  a  Baske-shallop  with  mast  and  saile,  an  iron 


EXPLORATION   AND  DISCOVERY     61 

grapple,  and  a  kettle  of  copper,  came  boldly  aboord 
vs,  one  of  them  apparelled  with  a  wastcoat  and 
breeches  of  black  serdge,  made  after  our  sea- 
fashion,  hoes  and  shoes  on  his  feet;  all  the  rest  (sail- 
ing one  that  had  a  paire  of  breeches  of  blue  cloth) 
were  all  naked."  Imagine  the  effect  of  such  a 
bizarre  company  of  savages  upon  sailors  after 
seven  weeks'  isolation  at  sea;  upon  discoverers  who 
had  thought  to  bring  novelty  and  astonishment  to 
whatever  natives  they  might  encounter  upon  an  un- 
known shore.  At  first,  in  the  offing,  they  had 
thought  them  Christians  distressed,  but  not  so- 
savages  in  truth  garbed  fantastically  in  some 
Christian's  cast-off  apparel  or  taken  perhaps  from 
some  dead  man  who  had  infringed  their  rights  — 
savages  from  all  accounts  familiar  with  Christians 
and  their  ways,  and  quite  the  masters  of  the  situa- 
tion, having,  according  to  Archer,  more  language 
at  their  command,  and  being  more  clever  to  under- 
stand by  signs  and  some  few  words  than  the  Eng- 
lish themselves.  That  they  had  had  intercourse 
with  some  Basks  or  Inhabitants  of  S.  lohn  de  Lu/ 
the  British  gathered  and  so  sailed  away  "leaving 
them  and  their  coast." 

The  mariner's  description  of  the  coming  into  the 
harbour  of  Cape  Cod  and  the  landing,  presumably 
at  Provincetown,  is  graphic  and  naive:  "  But  riding 


62     A   LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

heere,"  says  Brereton,  "in  no  very  good  harbour, 
and  withall,  doubting  the  weather,  about  three  of 
the  clocke  the  same  day  in  the  afternoone  we 
weighed,  &  standing  Southerly  off  into  sea  the  rest 
of  that  day  and  the  night  following,  with  a  fresh 
gale  of  winde,  in  the  morning  we  found  ourselues 
embayed  with  a  mightie  headland ;  but  comming  to 
an  anker  about  nine  of  the  clocke  the  same  day, 
within  a  league  of  the  shore,  we  hoisted  out  the  one 
halfe  of  our  shallop,  and  captaine  Bartholomew 
Gosnold  and  my  self  e  and  three  others,  went  ashore ; 
and  marching  all  that  afternoon  with  our  muskets 
on  our  necks,  on  the  highest  hilles  which  we  saw 
(the  weather  very  hot)  at  length  we  perceiued  this 
headland  to  be  parcell  of  the  maine,  and  sundrie 
Islands  lying  almost  round  about  it:  so  returning 
(towards  euening)  we  espied  an  Indian,  a  young 
man  of  proper  stature,  and  of  pleasing  counte- 
nance ;  and  after  some  f amiliaritie  with  him,  we  left 
him  at  the  sea  side,  and  returned  to  our  ship,  where, 
in  flue  or  sixe  houres  absence,  we  had  pestered  our 
ship  so  with  Cod  fish,  that  we  threw  numbers  of 
them  ouer-boord  againe:  and  surely  I  am  per- 
suaded that  in  the  monthes  of  March,  April,  and 
May  there  is  vpon  this  coast,  better  fishing,  and  in 
as  great  plentie,  as  in  Newfoundland:  for  sculles 
of  Mackerell,  herrings,  Cod,  and  other  fish,  that  we 


EXPLORATION   AND  DISCOVERY     63 

dayly  saw  as  we  went  and  came  from  the  shore,  were 
wonderf ull ;  and  besides,  the  places  where  we  tooke 
these  Cods  (and  might  in  a  few  daies  haue  laden 
our  ship)  were  but  in  seuen  faddome  water,  and 
within  lesse  than  a  league  of  the  shore;  where  in 
Newfound-land  they  fish  in  fortie  or  fiftie  fadome 
water,  and  farre  off.  From  this  place  we  sailed 
round  about  this  headland,  almost  all  the  points  of 
the  compasse,  the  shore  very  bolde:  but  as  no  coast 
is  free  from  dangers,  so  I  am  persuaded  this  is  as 
free  as  any  ..." 

Archer's  account  tells  of  the  naming  of  the  Cape: 
'  The  fifteenth  day  we  had  again  sight  of  land, 
which  made  ahead,  being  as  we  thought  an  island, 
by  reason  of  a  large  sound  that  appeared  westward 
between  it  and  the  main  for  coming  to  the  west  end 
whereof  we  did  perceive  a  large  opening,  we  called 
it  Shoal  Hope.  Near  this  cape  we  came  to  anchor 
in  fifteen  fathoms,  where  we  took  great  store  of 
Cod-fish,  for  which  we  altered  the  name,  and 
called  it  Cape  Cod." 

The  Gosnold-Gilbert  expedition,  though  casual 
in  its  relation  to  this  particular  spot,  is  of  utmost 
importance  as  the  first  recorded  visit  of  English- 
men to  the  coast  of  New  England.  Brereton's  re- 
lation made  the  earliest  English  book  relating  to 
New  England;  and  Gosnold  goes  down  to  history 


64     A   LOITERER    IX    NEW    ENGLAND 

as  the  true  discoverer  of  Cape  Cod.  The  name 
which  Gosnold  gave  it  has  clung1  to  it  despite  some 
royal  efforts  to  change  to  something  more  eupho- 
nious. Cape  Cod  it  remained,  though  upon  Smith's 
famous  map  of  Xew  England  it  figures  as  Cape 
James;  but,  says  Thoreau,  "even  princes  have  not 
always  power  to  change  a  name  for  the  worse," 
and,  as  Cotton  Mather  said,  Cape  Cod  is  "  a  name 
which  I  suppose  it  will  never  lose  till  shoals  of  cod- 
fish he  seen  swimming  on  its  highest  hills." 

After  sailing  around  the  headland  —  doubling 
the  Cape,  as  it  would  appear  from  the  description 
-the  voyagers  at  length  were  come  "amongst 
many  faire  islands,"  which  they  had  partly  dis- 
cerned at  their  first  landing;  all  lying  within  a 
league  or  two  of  one  another,  and  the  outermost 
not  more  than  six  or  seven  leagues  from  the  main. 
These  are  thought  to  have  been  Xan tucket  and 
Marthas  Vineyard,  though  an  island  which  they 
named  Marthas  Vineyard  is  now  known  as  Xo 
Man's  Land.  Upon  the  island  now  called  by  its 
Indian  name  —  Cuttyhunk  —  but  which  they,  in 
honour  of  their  queen,  named  Elizabeth  —  Gos- 
nold resolved  to  plant  his  colony.  The  precise  spot 
has  been  identified,  on  a  small  islet  in  a  pond  on  the 
northwest  side  of  the  island,  where  the  adventurers 
spent  three  weeks  and  more  in  building  their  forti- 


EXPLORATION   AND  DISCOVERY     05 

fied  house,  covered  with  sedge,  as  Brereton  tells  us, 
which  grew  about  this  lake  in  great  abundance. 

The  name  —  Elizabeth  Islands  —  is  now  applied 
to  the  entire  group  in  Buzzards  Bay  —  thirteen  in 
number,  large  and  small,  of  which  Cuttyhunk  is 
one;  and  the  township  which  these  constitute  bears 
the  name  of  the  discoverer  —  Gosnold. 

Brereton's  narration  abounds  in  picturesque  de- 
tail and  charming  anecdote.  He  was  a  close  ob- 
server and  dwells  enthusiastically  upon  the  great 
fertility  and  beauty  of  the  locality,  which  evidently 
he  quitted  with  regret  when  the  captain  aban- 
doned his  scheme  of  colonization  and  put  back  to 
England. 

He  speaks  of  the  experimental  planting  of  wheat, 
barley,  oats,  and  peas,  which  in  fourteen  days  were 
sprung  up  nine  inches  and  more;  of  the  "fat 
and  lustie "  soil  comparable  to  the  best  prepared 
gardens  of  England;  of  the  high  timbered  oaks, 
"  their  leaues  thrise  so  broad  as  ours,"  of  beech,  elm, 
holly,  and  walnut  trees  in  abundance,  hazelnut 
trees  and  cherry  trees,  the  "  leafe,  barke  and  big- 
ness not  differing  from  ours  in  England,  but  the 
stalk  beareth  the  blossoms  or  fruit  at  the  end  there- 
of, like  a  cluster  of  grapes,  forty  or  fifty  in  a 
bunch:  Sassafras  trees  great  plentie  all  the  Island 
oner,  a  tree  of  high  price  and  profit;  also  diners 


66     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

other  fruit  trees,  some  of  them  with  strange  barks, 
of  an  Orange  colour,  in  feeling  soft  and  smoothe 
like  velvet.  .  .  .  Also  diners  sorts  of  shellfish,  as 
Scallops,  Muscles,  Cockles,  Lobsters,  Crabs, 
Oisters,  and  Wilks,  exceeding  good  and  very  great. 
But  not  to  cloy  you  with  particular  rehearsal 
of  such  things  as  God  and  Nature  hath  bestowed  on 
these  places,  in  comparison  whereof  the  most  fertil 
part  of  all  England  is  (of  it  selfe)  but  barren;  we 
went  in  our  light-horsman  fro  this  Island  to  the 
maine,  right  against  this  Island  some  two  leagues 
off,  where  comming  ashore,  we  stood  a  while  like 
men  rauished  at  the  beautie  and  delicacie  of  this 
sweet  soile;  for  besides  diuers  cleere  Lakes  of  fresh 
water  (whereof  we  saw  no  end)  Medowes  very 
large  and  full  of  greene  grasse;  euen  the  most 
wooddy  places  (I  speake  onely  of  such  as  I  saw)  doe 
grow  so  distinct  and  apart,  one  tree  from  another, 
vpon  greene  grassie  ground,  somewhat  higher  than 
the  Plaines,  as  if  Nature  would  shew  herselfe  aboue 
her  power,  artificiall." 

Of  encounters  with  the  Indians  the  historian 
makes  captivating  material.  He  describes  the  na- 
tives as  "  exceeding  courteous,  gentle  of  disposition, 
and  well  conditioned,  excelling  all  others  that  we 
haue  seen ;  so  for  shape  of  bodie  and  lonely  f auour, 
I  thinke  they  excell  all  the  people  of  America;  of 


MIGRATING  GEESE. 

FROM  AN  ETCHING  BY  FRANK   W.  BF.NSON. 


EXPLORATION   AND  DISCOVERY     67 

stature  much  higher  than  we;  of  complexion  or 
colour,  much  like  a  darke  Oliue;  their  eie-browes 
and  haire  blacke,  which  they  weare  long,  tied  vp  be- 
hind in  knots,  whereon  they  pricke  feathers  of 
fowles,  in  fashion  of  a  crownet:  some  of  them  are 
black  thin  bearded;  they  make  beards  of  the  haire 
of  beasts :  and  one  of  them  offered  a  beard  of  their 
making  to  one  of  our  sailers,  for  his  that  grew  on 
his  face,  which  because  it  was  of  a  red  colour,  they 
iudged  to  be  none  of  his  owne." 

It  is  from  this  account  that  we  have  the  ancient 
tale  of  the  Indians  and  the  mustard,  "  whereat  they 
made  many  a  sowre  face."  And  Brereton  found 
them  quick  of  eye  and  steadfast  in  their  looks,  fear- 
less of  harm,  meaning  none  themselves.  That  he 
was  a  man  to  enjoy  and  appreciate  the  fine  points 
we  are  certain  from  the  affectionate  way  in  which 
he  speaks  of  one,  with  whom  he  was  "verie  famil- 
iar," and  from  the  incident  cited  to  show  how  clever 
they  were  at  pronouncing  English:  "for  one  of 
them  one  day  sitting  by  me,  vpon  occasion  I  spake 
smiling  to  him  these  words:  How  now  (sirlia]  arc 
you  so  saucie  with  my  Tobacco:  which  words  (with- 
out any  further  repetition)  he  suddenly  spake  so 
plaine  and  distinctly,  as  if  he  had  beene  a  long 
scholar  in  the  language." 

The  women,  of  whom  they  saw  but  three  in  all, 


68     A   LOITERER   IX   NEW   EXGLAXD 

he  describes  as  well  favoured  and  much  delighted 
in  the  company  of  the  strangers- — the  men  "very 
dutifull"  towards  them. 

All  of  this  Brereton  attributes  to  the  "hole- 
sorneness  and  temperature"  of  the  climate,  as  also 
the  complaisance  with  which  these  friendly  savages 
kept  them  company,  six  or  seven  remaining  behind 
when  the  others  had  departed  after  a  three  days' 
visit  from  the  main  land,  to  help  cut  and  carry  the 
sassafras.  And  of  that  departure  of  the  main  body 
of  savages  he  makes  this  touching  picture:  "but 
being  in  their  canowes  a  little  from  the  shore  they 
made  huge  cries  &  shouts  of  ioy  vnto  vs;  and  we 
with  our  trumpet  and  cornet,  and  casting  vp  our 
cappes  into  the  aire,  made  them  the  best  farewell 
we  could." 

But  when  the  ship  was  well  laden  with  sassa- 
fras, cedar,  furs,  skins,  and  other  commodities,  the 
number  of  those  willing  to  remain  behind  to  colo- 
nize had  so  dwindled  that,  says  Brereton :  "  cap- 
taine  Gosnold  seeing  his  whole  strength  to  consist 
of  but  twelue  men,  and  they  but  meanly  prouided, 
determined  to  returne  for  England,  leaning  this 
Island  (which  he  called  Elizabeths  Island)  writh 
as  many  true  sorrowfull  eies,  as  were  before  de- 
sirous to  see  it.  So  the  18  of  June,  being  Friday, 
we  weighed,  and  with  indifferent  faire  winde  and 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY     69 

weather  came  to  anker  the  23  of  July,  being  also 
Friday  (in  all,  bare  fiiie  weeks)  before  Eaemouth." 

Gosnold  left  tangible  souvenirs  of  his  voyage  in 
the  names  which  he  gave  to  his  place  of  settlement, 
to  Marthas  Vineyard,  and  to  the  headland  of  the 
Cape.  The  name,  Marthas  Vineyard,  it  is  true,  has 
been  shifted  to  a  more  important  island  of  the 
group  at  Buzzards  Bay  than  that  referred  to  by 
the  chroniclers  of  this  expedition,  while  that  of 
Elizabeth  has  been  stretched  to  include  the  whole 
of  the  thirteen  islands  of  which  the  original,  now 
Cutty  hunk,  was  but  one. 

As  for  the  other  name  —  Cape  Cod  —  the  old 
literature  on  the  subject  is  confusing  enough  until 
we  grasp  its  original  limitations.  The  early  navi- 
gators uniformly  applied  the  name  "  Cape "  to 
that  portion  of  Cape  Cod  lying  north  of  High 
Head  in  Truro,  and  for  many  years  after  the  dis- 
coveries of  Gosnold  the  name  was  limited  to  desig- 
nate that  portion  only  which  constitutes  its  ter- 
minus. The  old  whalers  of  the  eighteenth  century 
knew  Provincetown  by  no  other  name  than  "  Cape 
Cod  Harbour,"  or  by  emphasis,  simply  as  "  Cape 
Cod."  Amongst  the  veritable  old  salts  this  is  true 
even  down  to  the  present  day. 

The  laconic  name  bestowed  by  the  English  dis- 
coverer, in  1602,  superseded  foreign  appellations 


70     A   LOITERER   IN    NEW   ENGLAND 

noted  in  passing  by  the  various  migratory  naviga- 
tors of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  of 
whom  few  seem  to  have  failed  to  pass  in  sight  of 
the  headland.  It  figures  unmistakably,  though 
unnamed,  upon  Juan  de  la  Cosa's  famous  map  of 
the  world,  made  in  1500,  the  first  mapa  mundi  ever 
traced.  This  interesting  document,  made  by  the 
most  expert  mariner  and  pilot  of  his  age  —  he 
made  the  voyage  with  Columbus  in  1492  —  is  ex- 
hibited in  the  Naval  Museum  of  Madrid,  and  was 
reproduced  in  facsimile  about  1892, 

Ribero's  chart  of  1529  calls  Cape  Cod  C.  de 
Arenas,  or  Sandy  Cape,  and  other  mariners  of 
about  that  epoch  called  it  Arecifes,  Francescan, 
and  C.  de  Croix.  After  Hudson  the  whole  Cape 
wras  called  Niew  Hollant;  on  other  Dutch  charts 
Provincetown  Harbour  is  called  Fuic  Bay,  on 
another  the  tip  of  the  Cape  is  called  Staten 
Hoeck. 

Champlain  calls  it  le  cap  blanc,  or  the  white  cape, 
from  the  colour  of  its  sands,  his  admirable  chart 
bearing  the  legible  inscription  C.  Elan  for  the 
extremity  of  the  Cape  while  Massachusetts  Bay 
is  designated  as  Baye  Blanche,  Champlain  de- 
scended the  coast  of  our  continent  from  the  north, 
as  his  exact  description  makes  clearly  evident,  and 
entering  Cape  Cod  Harbour  from  the  direction  of 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY     71 

Plymouth  had  the  same  impression  of  advancing 
upon  an  island  that  deceived  Gosnold  and  his  com- 
pany upon  their  approach  three  years  earlier. 
"  Coasting  along  in  a  southerly  direction,"  says  the 
explorer,  "  we  sailed  four  or  rive  leagues,  and  passed 
near  a  rock  on  a  level  with  the  surface  of  the  water." 
This  rock  has  been  identified  as  one  of  several  to 
he  found  near  the  entrance  of  the  Wellfleet  Har- 
bour. Champlain  describes  it  as  near  a  river  ex- 
tending some  distance  inland  and  named  it  St. 
Suzanne  du  Cap  Blanc. 

"  As  we  continued  our  course,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  we  saw  some  land  which  seemed  to  us  to  be 
islands,  but  upon  coming  nearer  we  perceived  to 
be  terra  firma,  lying  to  the  nor'  nor'west  of  us,  and 
that  it  was  the  cape  of  a  large  bay,  containing  more 
than  eighteen  or  nineteen  leagues  of  circuit,  into 
which  we  had  run  so  far  (oil  nous  nous  engouf- 
f rattles  tcllement)  that  we  had  to  wear  off  on  the 
other  tack  in  order  to  double  the  cape  which  we 
had  seen,  and  which  we  named  le  cap  blanc,  pour 
dc  quc  c'estoient  sables  et  dunes,  qui  paroissent 
ainsi."  The  effect  of  the  high,  sandy  coast  as  ap- 
proached from  the  sea,  he  describes  as  quite 
remarkable. 

In  his  Description  of  New  England  Captain 
John  Smith  disposes  of  Cape  Cod,  as  of  no  great 


72     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

importance,  with  a  few  cursory  remarks.  He,  like 
Champlain  and  the  others,  approached  it  from 
Plymouth,  coming  down  the  coast  from  the  north, 
and  describes  it,  as  Thoreau  says,  "  like  an  old  trav- 
eller, voyager,  and  soldier,  who  had  seen  too  much 
of  the  world  to  exaggerate,  or  even  to  dwell  long 
on  a  part  of  it."  Cape  Cod,  says  Smith,  "  is  the 
next  presents  itself,  which  is  only  a  headland  of 
high  hills  of  sand  overgrown  with  shrubby  pines, 
hurts,  and  such  trash,  but  an  excellent  harbour  for 
all  weathers.  The  Cape  is  made  by  the  main  sea 
on  the  one  side,  and  a  great  bay  on  the  other,  in 
the  form  of  a  sickle." 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE   BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE 

THOUGH  it  dates  back  so  far  in  our  cosmic  con- 
sciousness, Cape  Cod  retains  much  of  its  primitive 
mystery.  It  is  little  known  in  the  social  world  ex- 
cept to  a  discriminating  few  who  make  of  it  a 
kind  of  cult.  It  has  retained  to  a  remarkable  de- 
gree its  simplicity  and  has  suffered  practically  not 
at  all  from  land  speculation  and  "improvement." 
At  the  same  time  it  has  almost  constantly  been 
before  the  federal  and  state  governments  for  one 
cause  or  another  —  either  to  protect  its  harbour 
from  the  encroaching  sands,  to  settle  the  boun- 
daries of  its  Province  Lands,  or  to  plant  its  "  back 
side"  with  lighthouses  and  life-saving  stations,  as 
some  protection  for  the  mariners  who  seek  to  navi- 
gate its  peculiarly  hazardous  and  baffling  coast. 

The  importance  of  Cape  Cod  Harbour,  as  has 
been  eloquently  pointed  out  at  various  legislative 
assemblies,  whose  proceedings  are  preserved  in  age- 
worn  pamphlets  in  occasional  libraries,  affects  not 
only  Provincetown,  Truro,  and  the  greater  part 
of  Wellfleet,  which  its  loss  would  blot  out  of  exist- 

73 


74     A   LOITERER   IX   NEW   ENGLAND 

ence,  since  they  depend  entirely  on  this  harbour, 
but  all  the  towns  of  the  commonwealth  interested 
in  the  mackerel  fishery. 

The  mackerel  fleet  makes  this  harbour  its  place 
of  refuge  and  shelter,  flying  in  and  out  with  every 
change  of  weather.  Though  many  a  native  captain 
and  hundreds  of  the  humbler  Portuguese  inhabit- 
ants "  fish  out  of  Provincetown,"  as  the  phrase  is, 
visiting  their  weirs  near  the  wide  mouth  of  the  har- 
bour in  the  blank  hours  of  the  early  morning,  and 
bringing  in  rich  hauls  of  cod,  hake,  haddock,  cusk, 
pollock,  and  halibut  to  the  local  salt  packers  and 
cold-storage  plants,  it  is  the  mackerel  fleet  which 
lends  the  romantic  flavour  to  the  harbour. 

The  routine  of  the  ground  fishery  is  sober  busi- 
ness, devoid  of  excitement  and  charm  in  compari- 
son with  the  hazards  of  the  life  of  the  mackerel 
fisher.  No  wind  in  the  willow  is  more  evanescent 
than  he.  The  white  sails  of  the  fleet,  which  hover 
about  Cape  Cod,  seem  moved  by  some  mysterious 
law  beyond  the  ken  of  the  casual  landsman,  ma- 
noeuvring in  the  offing,  perpetually  coming  and 
going,  "doubling  the  Cape"  always  witli  that  air 
of  expectancy  as  outward  bound,  their  sails  fill  and 
their  hulls  seem  to  plough  the  sands  of  Long  Point, 
filing  out  one  after  another  on  doubtful  days  to  try 
their  luck,  and  standing  off  within  the  safety  zone 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        75 

like  children  hugging  hase ;  or  sailing  straight  away 
from  the  harbour  urged  by  some  obscure  nature 
law,  leaving  a  spiral  phosphorescent  wake,  leading 
to  far-off  waters  beyond  sight  of  the  highest  hills 
of  the  Province  Lands.  Where  they  go,  what  ad- 
ventures befall  them  in  the  dark  nights  so  favour- 
able to  their  elusive  pursuit,  who  shall  tell  ? 

To  Thoreau,  watching  this  city  of  canvas  flock- 
ing into  Provincetown  Harbour  on  a  Saturday 
night,  standing  by  Race  Point  and  Long  Point 
with  various  speed,  they  seemed  to  resemble  fowls 
coming  home  to  roost.  To  me  their  erratic  move- 
ments are  much  more  suggestive  of  kinship  with 
the  gulls,  which  lend  also  vivacity  and  character  to 
this  harbour.  These  temperamental  birds,  so  emo- 
tionally constructed,  come  by  thousands  to  pass  the 
winter  on  this  coast,  profiting  largely  of  its  island 
climate,  and  living  upon  the  entrails  of  the  fish 
thrown  off  the  wharves  where  the  salt  packing  is 
done. 

On  sullen  days  they  squat  on  the  water  and  bob 
about  motionless  as  so  many  rubber  ducks.  When 
the  tide  is  high  and  the  ocean  tempestuous  they  fly 
and  swoop  in  great  clouds,  becoming  a  wild  and 
weird  symbol  of  the  elements,  their  shrill  cries  wak- 
ing one  with  the  first  rays  of  the  brilliant  sun.  As 
the  tide  recedes  they  group  themselves  to  their  best 


76     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

advantage  upon  the  shoals,  settling  as  soon  as  the 
water  becomes  shallow  enough  for  them  to  stand, 
and  waiting  for  the  tide  to  go  out  and  leave  them 
high  and  dry  for  a  lazy  sun  bath.  At  intervals 
when  the  tide  is  out  they  walk  rapidly  about  upon 
the  greasy  marsh,  shimmering  in  the  glare  of  the 
morning  sun. 

The  mackerel  fleet,  the  gulls,  the  winds,  the  tide, 
the  sky,  the  sea,  all  seem  one  together  —  unaccount- 
able, elemental,  basic. 

Thoreau,  who  visited  Cape  Cod  at  the  time  of  the 
greatest  prosperity  of  the  mackerel  fishery,  speaks 
of  counting  "  two  hundred  goodly  looking  schooners 
at  anchor  in  the  harbour,"  and  more  yet  coming 
round  the  Cape.  A  fisherman  told  him  that  there 
were  fifteen  hundred  vessels  in  the  fleet,  of  which 
sometimes  as  many  as  three  hundred  and  fifty  an- 
chored at  one  time  in  Provincetown  Harbour. 
This  was  between  1849  and  1855.  These  vessels 
came  from  all  the  towns  of  Barnstable  County, 
from  the  Plymouth,  Norfolk,  and  Essex  towns  - 
such  as  Marblehead,  Gloucester,  Beverly,  Ipswich, 
and  Newburyport.  At  the  present  time  the 
Gloucester  schooners  far  outnumber  the  vessels 
from  other  ports. 

"  Cape  Cod  is  the  bared  and  bended  arm  of 
Massachusetts:  the  shoulder  is  at  Buzzards  Bay; 


"MOONLIGHT". 

FROK  AN  ETCHING  BY  FRANK  W.  BENSON. 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        77 

the  elbow,  or  crazy  bone,  at  Cape  Mallebarre ;  the 
wrist  at  Truro ;  and  the  sandy  fist  at  Provincetown, 
-  behind  which  the  State  stands  on  her  guard,  with 
her  back  to  the  Green  Mountains,  and  her  feet 
planted  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  like  an  ath- 
lete protecting  her  Bay,  —  boxing  with  northeast 
storms,  and,  ever  and  anon,  heaving  up  her  Atlan- 
tic adversary  from  the  lap  of  earth,  —  ready  to 
thrust  forth  her  other  fist,  which  keeps  guard  the 
while  upon  her  breast  at  Cape  Ann." 

Thoreau  puts  grandly  the  obvious  comparison 
in  a  sentence  whose  vigorous  imagery  has  not  been 
excelled  even  in  his  own  writings.  So  pithy  a 
statement  of  her  case  should  never  be  separated 
from  the  annals  of  the  Cape,  and,  though  possibly 
the  most  familiar  paragraph  of  the  delicious  work 
on  Cape  Cod,  not  to  quote  it  —  on  the  score  of 
originality  —  would  seem  to  be  an  affectation. 

As  the  "right  arm  of  the  commonwealth,"  in 
more  senses  of  the  term  than  one,  many  old  writers 
have  described  it  —  a  right  arm  of  defence,  not  only 
geographically,  but  by  virtue  of  the  race  of  efficient, 
intelligent,  and  enterprising  seamen  bred  on  its 
barren  soil  —  a  right  arm  of  assault  upon  life  and 
property  because  of  the  concealed  shoals  that  ren- 
der navigation  around  this  obstruction  exceedingly 
hazardous,  and  Provincetown  Harbour  one  of  the 


most  dangerous  of  approach,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
safest  in  our  whole  country. 

Clemens  Herschel,  writing  on  behalf  of  the  Cape 
Cod  Canal,1  describes  this  isthmus  as  "in  effect 
nothing  but  a  huge  mole,  or  pier,  a  sort  of  fence  run 
out  into  the  sea  that  separates  the  '  Bay  Shore '  of 
Massachusetts  and  the  sea-coast  of  Massachusetts, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Maine  to  the  north  of  that 
from  the  rest  of  the  United  States."  The  harbour, 
forty  miles  from  the  Boston  Light,  at  the  mouth 
of  Boston  Harbour,  is  the  only  approachable  haven, 
even  for  small  coasters,  bound  into  Boston  and 
adjacent  points,  when  caught  between  the  south- 
erly and  northerly  ends  of  the  Cape.  Hidden 
shoals  lie  all  along  the  route  through  the  sound 
and  on  the  outside  of  the  islands  of  Nantucket  and 
Marthas  Vineyard.  Shifting  sand  bars  parallel  the 
eastern  shores  of  Cape  Cod,  which  present  for  the 
fifty  miles  from  Monomoy  Point,  at  Chatham,  to 
Wood  End,  at  Provincetown,  an  unbroken  line  of 
sandy  beaches.  The  rigor  of  the  climate,  the  dan- 
ger of  collisions  in  the  narrow  and  crooked  channels 
between  the  shoals  in  fogs,  as  well  as  the  fact  that 
the  sailing  directions  make  less  than  a  right  angle 
with  one  another,  have  earned  for  the  famous  back 
side  of  the  Cape  an  unenviable  record  for  loss  of 

1  Franklin  Institute  Journal,  May,  1878. 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        79 

life  and  property,  and  the  apt  title  of  the  Ocean 
Graveyard.  The  bones  of  once  staunch  crafts 
litter  its  beaches;  the  bones  of  thousands  of  un- 
named dead  lie  whitening  upon  those  sunken  plains 
beneath  placid  seeming  waters,  where  men  perished 
helpless  within  sight  and  sound  of  the  desolate 
shore;  while  the  unmarked  graves  in  the  village 
burying  grounds  of  the  Cape  bear  mute  testimony 
to  the  wanton  waste  of  life  that  preceded  the  com- 
paratively recent  work  of  organized  rescue. 

Along  this  dangerous  coast  a  paternal  govern- 
ment has  planted  at  intervals  lighthouses  as  bea- 
cons to  warn  the  mariner  of  his  peril,  and  still  more 
recently  rescue  stations  for  the  relief  of  such  ves- 
sels as  founder  upon  its  shoals,  or  are  driven  upon 
the  sands  by  adverse  winds  and  currents.  This 
once  completely  desolate  coast  is  now  patrolled 
every  night,  regardless  of  wind  or  weather,  and 
during  thick  weather  by  day,  by  an  endless  chain 
of  surf  men,  who  meet  and  report  at  the  half-way 
houses  between  the  stations,  thus  keeping  up  an  un- 
broken line  of  communication  throughout  its  ex- 
tent, their  work  aided  by  all  the  scientific  equip- 
ment of  the  age. 

No  night  so  black,  no  storm  so  violent  but  the 
surfman  sentry  is  on  guard,  his  pockets  filled  with 
the  code  signals,  by  means  of  which  he  may  speak 


80    A   LOITERER   IN   XEW   ENGLAND 

to  a  distressed  vessel  and  summon  instant  help  in 
case  of  need.  On  moonlight  nights,  on  starlit 
nights,  on  nights  as  black  as  ink ;  through  impene- 
trable fog,  through  rain,  shine,  sleet,  or  hail; 
through  blinding  sand  storms  and  smothering 
snows;  against  the  blasts  of  winter  gales,  through 
driving  tempest,  the  way  imperilled  by  flooded 
beaches,  storm  tides,  or  quicksands,  driving  him  to 
the  crests  of  the  dunes,  the  heroic  surfman  walker 
pursues  his  devoted  path  along  the  exposed 
beaches  on  the  lookout  for  distressed  vessels. 

The  life-saving  service  on  Cape  Cod  dates  back 
less  than  fifty  years  —  the  first  lighthouse  was 
erected  but  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  and 
only  in  the  suite  of  most  appalling  disasters.  In 
view  of  the  present  efficiency  of  the  service,  the 
apparent  reluctance  of  congress  to  make  provision 
for  it  is  almost  incredible.  While  there  is  no  official 
record  of  the  disasters  on  this  coast  previous  to 
the  establishment  of  the  service  in  1872,  the  hor- 
rors of  many  have  come  down  by  tradition  or  been 
preserved  in  the  annals  of  the  Cape  towns. 

Governor  Bradford  himself  is  the  historian  of 
the  first  recorded  wreck  upon  these  shores,  relating 
in  his  history  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  the  fate 
of  the  ship  Sparrowhawk,  a  famous  historic  hulk 
carrying  colonists  bound  for  Virginia,  and  stranded 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        81 

on  the  shoals  at  Orleans  in  1620.  Old  Ship  Har- 
bour received  its  name  in  commemoration  of  this 
wreck,  which  lay  huried  in  the  sands  for  more  than 
two  centuries,  and  was  exhumed  by  a  memorable 
storm  in  1863,  when  the  washing  away  of  the  shore 
line  disclosed  the  skeleton.  The  ribs  and  bottom 
timbers  form  an  important  exhibit  at  Pilgrim  Hall, 
in  Plymouth.  The  vessel  was  a  contemporary  of 
the  Mat/  Flower  and  its  survivors  took  refuge  at 
Plymouth,  so  that  its  remains  are  well  placed 
amongst  the  historic  collections  of  that  citv. 

cu  *• 

The  famous  loss  of  the  English  frigate  Som- 
ersct,  in  November,  1778,  when  trying  to  make 
Provincetown  Harbour,  pursued  by  some  French 
men-of-war,  was  one  disaster  that  was  thoroughly 
relished  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Cape.  This  ill- 
starred  vessel  was  present  at  the  bombardment  of 
Charlestown,  having  covered  the  landing  of  the 
British  troops  at  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  She 
was  commanded  by  the  notorious  Captain  Bellamy, 
who  had  made  her  a  veritable  pest  at  Provincetown, 
running  frequently  into  the  harbour  and  levying 
upon  the  people  of  that  tiny  village  for  supplies, 
and  sending  his  chaplain  ashore  on  Sundays  to 
preach,  offering  sermons  as  ironic  payment  for  the 
stores  appropriated. 

The  good  news  of  the  plight  of  this  vessel  was 


82     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

soon  circulated  in  Provincetown  and  the  citizens 
with  secret  joy  in  their  hearts  watched,  from  High 
Pole  Hill,  the  destruction  of  their  old  enemy.  She 
struck  the  Peaked  Hill  Bars  during  a  northeast 
gale  while  trying  to  round  the  Cape.  Being  unable 
to  weather  Race  Point,  in  tacking  she  struck  the 
outer  bar  with  terrific  force  and  instantly  the  seas 
began  to  pound  her  to  pieces.  There  was  no  need 
for  the  French  vessel  to  pursue  her  advantage  — 
seeing  her  enemy  vanquished,  she  fired  a  few  shots 
and  then  stood  out  to  sea  for  safety.  The  dis- 
tressed vessel  launched  a  few  boats  but  these  were 
speedily  dashed  to  pieces  and  those  in  them 
drowned.  Meanwhile  the  ship  having  been  light- 
ened in  every  possible  manner,  was  driven  by  the 
force  of  the  wind  at  high  tide  over  the  bar  and  up 
the  shore,  where  the  few  survivors  that  had  stuck 
to  the  strained  and  leaking  hulk  were  taken  prisoner 
by  Captain  Enoch  Hallett  and  a  detachment  of 
militia  from  Yarmouth.  There  was  a  triumphant 
march  to  Barnstable  and  later  to  Boston  with  the 
captives,  and  much  jubilation  over  the  wreck. 

Captain  Abijah  Doane,  of  Wellfleet,  was  left 
in  charge  of  the  wreck,  which  was  speedily  fallen 
upon,  however,  by  the  outraged  citizens  of  Prov- 
incetown, who  carried  off  many  trophies.  Amongst 
other  things  a  few  guns,  that  had  been  thrown 


THE   BACK    SIDE  :    DUNES   OF   THE  OUTER  RIDGE. 


THE  SAND  DUNES   "OUT   RACK", 
DECORATIVE    LANDSCAPE    BY 
ROSS   MOFFETT  :    "THE   MAN 
IN   THE  CONNING  TOWER    HAD 
THIS   PROSPECT   DAY    AND   NIGHT 
UNDER   HIS  EYE,    MUCH    OF   IT 
WITHIN   REACH   OF   HIS   AMPLI- 
FIED VOICE." 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        83 

overboard  to  lighten  the  ship,  were  landed  and  af- 
terwards used  in  some  of  the  fortifications  along  the 
eoast.  Fire  was  set  to  the  hull,  but  only  partially 
consumed  the  deck  and  upper  works.  Then  the 
shifting  sands  rolled  over  her  and  the  vessel  was 
soon  buried  from  sight. 

The  bones  of  the  Somerset  lay  deep  in  the  sands 
for  nearly  a  century,  when,  during  the  winter  of 
1885-1886,  a  succession  of  northeast  gales  in  combi- 
nation with  a  very  high  course  of  tides  wore  out 
the  beach  at  the  point  where  she  was  imbedded  and 
exposed  the  charred  timbers  and  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  deck  of  the  vessel.  It  was  freely  visited 
and  plundered  by  relic  hunters,  and  to  this  day 
mementoes  made  of  the  wood  of  the  frigate  Somer- 
set may  be  purchased  in  Provincetown.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  the  work  of  demolition  could 
only  be  carried  on  at  low  tide,  and  before  it  was 
well  under  way  the  beach  began  to  "  make  out " 
again  and  soon  obliterated  all  trace  of  the  historic 
hulk. 

From  the  year  1843  to  1859,  a  period  of  seven- 
teen years,  eight  hundred  and  twenty-seven  wrecks 
were  reported  off  Cape  Cod.  One  gale  wrecked 
eighteen  vessels  between  Race  Point  and  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  Cape.  The  year  18.53  was  mem- 
orable in  the  annals  of  the  peninsula,  twenty-three 


84     A   LOITERER   IX   NEW   ENGLAND 

appalling  disasters  having  occurred  along  its  shore 
with  often  a  total  destruction  of  life,  ship,  and 
cargo  —  the  survivors  of  the  wrecks  often  perishing 
from  exposure  on  the  desolate  uplands  and  beaches. 
One  particularly  sad  affair  was  the  wreck  of  the 
Clara  Belle,  a  coal  schooner,  stranded  on  the  bars 
off  High  Head  Station,  on  the  night  of  March  6, 
1872,  during  a  blizzard.  A  description  of  this 
wreck,  published  in  J.  W.  Dalton's  little  monument 
to  bravery,  entitled  "  The  Life  Savers  of  Cape 
Cod,"  gives  the  outline  of  the  tragedy:  "Captain 
Amesbury  and  crew  of  six  men  attempted  to  reach 
the  shore  in  their  boat.  The  craft  had  gone  but 
a  few  yards  when  she  was  overturned,  throwing 
the  men  into  the  sea.  John  Silva  was  the  only 
member  of  the  crew  that  reached  the  shore.  He 
found  himself  alone  on  a  frozen  beach  with  the 
mercury  below  zero.  He  wandered  about  during 
the  night  trying  to  find  some  place  of  shelter,  and 
was  found  the  next  morning  by  a  farmer  standing 
dazed,  barefooted,  and  helpless  in  the  highway 
three  miles  from  the  scene  of  the  wreck.  His 
feet  and  hands  were  frozen,  and  it  was  a  long 
time  before  he  recovered  from  the  effects.  The 
schooner  was  driven  high  and  dry  on  the  beach, 
and  when  boarded  the  next  day  a  warm  fire  was 
found  in  the  cabin.  .  The  haste  of  the  crew  to 


BACK    SIDE    OF    THE    CAPE        85 

leave  the  vessel,"  sums  up  the  writer,  "cost  them 
their  lives." 

The  work  of  the  professional  life  savers  is  so 
romantic  and  heroic,  and  they  perform  their  duties 
with  such  simple  courage  and  bravery  that  one  is 
apt  to  invest  the  character  with  too  ponderous  a 
halo.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  savers  of  Cape  Cod, 
especially  the  old  ones,  have  very  human  qualities 
in  combination  with  their  nobler  characteristics. 
When  not  engaged  in  their  official  occupation  they 
make  delightful  conversation  for  the  entertainment 
of  the  casual  visitors  to  the  back  side.  We  thought 
them  inured  perhaps  to  the  business  of  dragging 
the  dead  and  the  living  out  of  the  sea,  and  as  little 
affected  by  one  as  by  the  other,  but  an  old  chief 
said  to  me  once  with  a  grim  dash  of  humour:  "I 
hope  you  won't  think  I  'm  kinda  weak  and  woman- 
ish .  .  .  but  when  I  feel  a  corpse  sloshin'  up  against 
me  out  thar  in  the  water  in  the  night  time  .  .  . 
makes  me  feel  kinda  shivery." 

There  grew  to  be  we  thought  a  sort  of  rivalry 
between  this  captain  and  the  head  of  the  next  sta- 
tion, about  five  miles  farther  down  the  Cape,  and 
once  when  that  more  remote  hero  brought  in  a  ves- 
sel, saving  all  souls  and  the  cargo,  one  of  the  per- 
manent summer  people  with  whom  our  friend  was 
on  confidential  terms,  twitted  him  with  raillery 


86     A   LOITERER   IX   NEW   ENGLAND 

upon  having  allowed  "  Captain  Davis "  to  get 
ahead  of  him.  "  I  see  that  you  let  Captain  Davis 
take  that  last  wreck,"  said  she,  smiling;  "how  was 
that,  Captain?"  Our  friend  scowled  heavily. 
"  Wall,"  said  he  impressively,  "  it 's  abaout  time. 
Last  winter  I  had  'leven  wrecks  and  twenty-seven 
God  damned  corpses"  -bringing  out  the  oaths 
deliberately  —  "and  Captain  Davis,  he  ain't  had 
but  three  wrecks,  and  nary  a  corpse." 

I  found  amongst  the  few  stray  pamphlets  and 
documents  concerning  the  Cape  a  curious  fore- 
runner of  the  work  of  the  Coast  Guard  Service, 
now  so  effectively  systematized.  This  document 
is  entitled  "  A  Description  of  the  Eastern  Coast  of 
the  County  of  Barnstable,"  and  includes  the  whole 
coast  from  "  Cape  Cod,  or  Race  Point "  to  "  Cape 
Malebarre  or  the  Sandy  Point  of  Chatham."  Is- 
sued in  an  edition  of  two  thousand  copies,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1802,  distributed  to  the  sailing  vessels  that  fre- 
quented this  coast,  it  points  out  the  spots  upon 
which  the  trustees  of  the  Humane  Society  had 
erected  huts,  and  other  places  where  distressed  sea- 
men might  look  for  shelter. 

The  Massachusetts  Humane  Society  was  formed 
in  1786  and  offered  the  first  organized  relief  for 
shipwrecked  mariners  in  the  United  States,  as  well 
as  upon  Cape  Cod.  In  a  sense  it  may  be  considered 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        87 

the  parent  of  the  United  States  Life- Saving  Serv- 
ice, and  it  also  antedated  by  a  number  of  years  any 
similar  movement  for  the  protection  of  seafarers  in 
France  and  England.  While  its  first  work  was 
the  building  of  huts  to  shelter  such  survivors  of 
wrecks  that  might  reach  the  shore,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  decades  it  had  extended  its  usefulness  by 
the  erection,  at  the  expense  of  its  members,  of 
eighteen  stations  on  the  Massachusetts  coast,  with 
boats  and  mortars  for  throwing  life  lines  to  stranded 
vessels.  The  first  appropriation  made  by  congress 
for  the  assistance  of  shipwrecked  seamen  was  on 
March  3,  1847. 

The  huts  erected  by  the  Humane  Society  had  no 
connection  with  the  government,  and  in  those  days 
represented  the  only  relief  offered  distressed  sailors 
along  this  coast.  They  were  entirely  the  altruistic 
enterprise  of  the  benevolent  organization,  built 
from  its  funds,  and  supported  by  its  members,  who 
pledged  themselves  to  inspect  the  huts  at  inter- 
vals and  to  keep  them  supplied  with  the  most  ele- 
mentary of  creature  comforts. 

The  ancient  description  pictures  these  huts  as 
structures  eight  feet  long,  eight  feet  wide,  and 
seven  feet  high,  standing  upon  piles,  and  fitted  with 
a  sliding  door  to  the  south,  a  sliding  shutter  to  the 
west,  and  a  pole  rising  fifteen  feet  above  the  top 


88     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

of  the  building,  on  the  east.  Within  they  were 
fitted  with  straw  or  hay,  and  each  was  "  further  ac- 
commodated with  a  bench." 

To  one  who  has  walked  the  sands  of  the  back 
side  for  hours  without  meeting  a  human  creature, 
even  in  these  days  of  efficient  coast  patrol,  it  is  easy 
to  picture  the  grim  desolation  and  hopelessness  of 
the  castaway  upon  this  part  of  the  coast.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  how  through  negligence  of  this 
self-appointed  custodian  of  the  stranded  mariner, 
one  of  these  humane  huts  failed  of  its  mission  at  the 
very  time  and  place  where  its  hospitality  was  most 
urgently  called  upon. 

"The  Humane  Society"  -the  pamphlet  thus 
relates  its  terrible  story  with  the  tragic  simplicity 
of  true  art  —  "several  years  ago  erected  a  hut  at 
the  head  of  Stouts  Creek,"  in  Truro,  but  "  it  was 
built  in  an  improper  manner,  having  a  chimney  in 
it;  and  was  placed  on  a  spot  where  no  beach  grass 
grew.  The  strong  winds  blew  the  sand  from  its 
foundation,  and  the  weight  of  the  chimney  brought 
it  to  the  ground ;  so  that  in  January  of  the  present 
year  (1802)  it  was  entirely  demolished.  This  event 
took  place  about  six  weeks  before  the  Brutus  was 
cast  away.  If  it  had  remained,  it  is  probable  that 
the  whole  of  the  unfortunate  crew  of  that  ship 
would  have  been  saved,  as  they  gained  shore  a 


BACK    SIDE   OF   THE    CAPE        89 

few  rods  only  from  the  spot  where  the  hut  had 
stood." 

If  the  minute  and  careful  directions  intended  to 
guide  the  survivors  of  the  many  wrecks  of  this  fate- 
ful coast  seem  too  complicated  —  as  any  attempt 
to  direct  by  words  a  stranger  through  the  woods, 
filled  with  ponds  and  entangling  swamps,  that  lie 
between  the  outside  and  the  bay  shores  are  bound 
to  be  —  there  is  no  questioning  the  sincerity  of  the 
author  nor  the  thoroughness  of  this  little  manual. 
Whoever  wrote  it  knew  the  coast  and  the  dunes,  as 
the  French  say,  like  his  pocket,  and  the  descriptions 
of  the  lonely  desert,  out  there  behind  the  snug  vil- 
lage of  Provincetown,  has  a  certain  sad  beauty,  as 
if  the  writer  knew,  even  while  he  makes  the  routes 
through  the  "  hollows,"  between  the  hills,  as  clear 
as  written  language  can  present  them,  that  there 
is  little  hope  that  his  words  will  reach  the  desper- 
ate situations  which  they  foresee. 

'  The  curvature  of  the  shore  on  the  west  side  of 
Provincetown  and  south  of  Race  Point,"  he  begins, 
"  is  called  Herring  Cove.  It  is  three  miles  in  length 
and  vessels  may  ride  safely  in  four  or  five  fathoms 
of  water  when  the  wind  is  from  the  northeast  to 
southeast."  On  Race  Point,  where  is  now  one  of 
the  most  important  life-saving  stations  of  the 
coast,  stood,  in  those  days,  about  a  dozen  fishing 


90     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

huts,  containing  fireplaces  and  other  conveniences. 
We  have  at  present  a  well  built  state  road  across 
the  dunes  and  cranberry  bogs  that  lie  between  this 
point  and  Provincetown,  a  distance  of  three  good 
miles.  This  road  is  of  recent  construction  and  the 
passage  in  the  old  days  our  friend  describes  as  over 
a  sandy  beach,  without  grass  or  any  other  "  vege- 
table," to  the  woods,  through  which  there  was  a 
winding  road  to  the  town. 

Floundering  about  one  day  through  the  heavy 
sands  upon  the  ridge  that  begins  not  far  from  this 
place,  in  search  of  the  route  back  to  town,  a  voice 
suddenly  reached  me  with  startling  distinctness. 
"  Are  you  looking  for  the  road? "  it  asked,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  direct  my  course.  I  found  that  it  be- 
longed to  the  solitary  sentinel  in  the  lookout  tower 
of  the  Race  Point  Coast  Guard  Station.  From  his 
conning  tower  his  glass  swept  the  horizon,  and  he 
had  doubtless  long  had  his  eye  on  me,  advancing 
slowly  up  the  hard  sands  smoothed  by  the  receding 
tide,  and  identified  the  wanderer  as  of  the  genus 
"summer  folks"  (though  it  was  late  in  the  au- 
tumn), that  pernicious  pest  who,  knowing  little  of 
the  menace  of  the  back  side,  are  continually,  during 
the  season,  tempting  Providence  by  bathing  ad- 
venturously in  its  treacherous  undertow,  or  losing 
their  way  in  the  trackless  desert,  turning  up  at  the 


THE  Ulysses,  Brutus,  AND  Volusia  SAILING  FROM  SALEM, 

FEBRUARY   21,    l8o2.      ALL   THREE   WRECKED   OFF   CAPE    COD 
ON    THIS    DATE. 

FROM    A    WATER   COLOUR    IN    THE    MARINE   ROOM, 
PEABODY    MUSEUM,    SALEM. 


WRECK  El)  ON 
CAPE   COD. 


THE   BEACH    AT 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        91 

stations  for  aid.  "Sef  we  hadn't  'nuf  savin'  to 
do,  'thout  savin'  summa  folks,"  the  captain  at  the 
Peaked  Hill  Bar  Station  remarked  sententiously 
one  hot  day  when  he  had  been  particularly  tried. 

One  could  thoroughly  grasp  his  point  of  view, 
and  there  was  something  curiously  typical  in  the 
reserve  of  his  attitude.  He  never  forbade  bathing, 
though  I  suppose  he  might  have  done  so  on  bad 
days,  but  seemed  to  understand  his  office  as  simply 
that  of  watcher,  not  entitled  to  intrude  until  help 
was  needed,  when  he  was  there  in  the  fullest  ac- 
ceptance of  the  word. 

There  was  a  story  of  occasional  discipline,  told  by 
one  of  the  old  chiefs  in  his  simple  dramatic  way,  in 
laconic  sentences  between  puffings  at  his  pipe.  It 
concerned  a  "  young  fellow,  all  dressed  up  in  whoite 
flan-nel,"  who,  springing  lightly  past  the  station 
one  summer  day  on  his  blithe  way  to  the  surf, 
paused  expansively  a  moment  before  the  group  of 
life  savers,  perched  on  tilted  chair  rungs,  gazing 
seaward.  " '  Sech  a  hawt  day,  sh'd  think  you  fel- 
lows 'd  be  in  swimmin',' "  he  says.  The  economy 
of  the  captain's  words  was  covered  by  the  extreme 
eloquence  of  his  pauses.  'Would  ye  so?'  I  says. 
He  went  on  down  to  the  water,"  the  captain  re- 
lated, holding  his  pipe  just  far  enough  from  his 
lips  to  allow  his  words  to  escape,  "  'n  took  his 


92     A    LOITERER    IX    NEW   EXGLAXD 

clothes  off,  'n  he  went  in.  I  sent  a  couple  o'  my 
men  down  to  watch  him.  He  swum  round  all  right 
for  quite  a  spell,  and  come  out  right  enough,  'thout 
needin'  any  help  —  they  want  no  undertow  to  speak 
ahaout  that  day ....  By  an'  by  he  comes  steppin' 
hack  past  the  stashun,  rigged  out  again  in  his 
whoite  flan-nels  wavin'  his  tow-el  in  the  air  to  git 
it  dry.  .  .  .  'Ben  takin'  a  dip,'  he  says.  '  I  seen 
ye  dip- pin'  I  says. 

"  X"ext  day  'long  abaout  high  tide  I  see  my  young 
man  comin'  by  again,  headin'  towards  the  water. 
'Twas  a  very  diff'runt  sort  of  day;  wind  lied 
changed  some,  tide  was  goin'  aout,  and  the  under- 
tow was  runnin'  considerable.  ...  I  says  to  the 
men,  I  says,  '  Jes'  leave  him  alone  down  there  for 
a  spell.  I  'm  goin'  to  teach  that  young  fellow  a 
les-sun,'  I  says. 

"  He  left  his  clothes  on  the  beach,  and  he  went 
inthew7ater.  .  .  ."  Here  the  pause  was  prolonged 
ominously.  "  The  waves  sloshed  him  round  suthin' 
awful,  we  watchin'  him.  .  .  .  He  was  a  fair  swim- 
mer, and  he  held  his  own  for  quite  a  spell,  but  try 
as  he  would  he  couldn't  make  the  shore,  the  beach 
is  cut  out  kinda  steep-like  there.  .  .  .  When  he 
was  pretty  nigh  wore  out,  I  sent  one  the  men  aout 
with  the  dory  to  fetch  him  in .  .  .  . "  The  captain 
leaned  over  the  rail  of  his  porch,  and  knocking  the 


BACK    SIDE    OF    THE    CAPE        93 

ashes  out  of  his  pipe  made  his  point  with  no  change 
of  countenance:  "I  ain't  seen  him  dip-pin'  sence." 

When  the  man  in  the  conning  tower  spoke  to 
me  through  his  megaphone  I  had  been  tramping 
from  far  down  the  coast  below  the  Peaked  Hill  Bar 
Station,  far  from  the  sight  and  sound  of  human 
habitation,  watching  the  serene  prospect  of  the 
manoeuvring  mackerel  fleet,  hull  down  in  the  hori- 
zon. The  beach  was  strewn  with  driftwood,  wreck- 
age, and  thousands  of  bottles  of  every  kind  and 
shape,  many  of  them  beautifully  iridescent,  like 
Egyptian  glass,  and  still  more  were  milky,  opales- 
cent, or  simply  ground  white  by  the  action  of  the 
waves  rolling  them  upon  the  sand. 

The  man  in  the  conning  tower  had  all  this  pros- 
pect day  and  night  under  his  eye,  much  of  it  within 
reach  of  his  amplified  voice.  I  thought  of  the  plight 
of  stranded  mariners  of  a  century  ago  who  had  few 
friendly  lights  to  guide  them,  no  watch  tower  over- 
looking their  distress,  its  searchlight  promising  suc- 
cor, no  voice  overtopping  the  fury  of  the  storm  — 
only  the  whisper  of  this  quiet  seaman's  manual,  re- 
minding, admonishing,  encouraging,  fervently  di- 
recting their  frenzied  footsteps  on  an  unknown  and 
perilous  shore. 

Xot  far  from  Race  Point  commences  the  ridge, 
running  parallel  to  the  beach,  and  constituting 


94     A   LOITERER   IN   NEW   ENGLAND 

Thoreau's  so-called  upper  road,  both  the  bank  and 
the  beach  extending  twenty-eight  miles  southeast 
from  Race  Point  to  Nauset  Harbour.  "  This 
ridge,"  says  the  whisper,  "  is  well  covered  with 
beach  grass  and  appears  to  owe  its  existence  to  that 
vegetable.  Beach  grass  during  the  spring  and 
summer  grows  about  two  and  a  half  feet.  If  sur- 
rounded by  the  naked  beach,  the  storms  of  autumn 
and  winter  heap  up  the  sand  on  all  sides,  and  cause 
it  to  rise  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  plant.  In  the  en- 
suing spring  the  grass  sprouts  anew,  is  again  cov- 
ered with  sand  in  winter,  and  thus  a  hill  or  ridge 
continues  to  ascend  as  long  as  there  is  sufficient 
base  to  support  it  or  until  the  circumscribing  sand, 
being  also  covered  with  beach  grass,  will  no  longer 
yield  to  the  force  of  the  winds." 

There  were  two  huts  erected  by  the  trustees  of 
the  Humane  Society;  one  on  the  ridge  half  way 
between  Race  Point  and  the  head  of  an  extin- 
guished stream  known  as  Stouts  Creek,  a  small 
branch  of  East  Harbour,  in  Truro,  and  another 
at  the  head  of  the  creek.  These  with  the  fisher- 
men's huts,  before  mentioned,  were  the  sole  relief 
afforded  mariners  along  what  was  known  to  be  the 
part  of  the  coast  most  exposed  to  wrecks.  "A 
northeast  storm,  the  most  violent  and  fatal  to  sea- 
men, as  it  is  frequently  accompanied  by  snow,  blows 


BACK    SIDE    OF   THE    CAPE        95 

directly  on  the  land:  a  strong  current  sets  along 
the  shore :  add  to  which  that  ships  during  the  opera- 
tion of  such  a  storm  endeavour  to  work  to  the 
northward  that  they  may  get  into  the  bay.  Should 
they  be  unable  to  weather  Race  Point  the  wind 
drives  them  on  the  shore,  and  a  shipwreck  is  inevi- 
table. Accordingly  the  strand  is  everywhere  cov- 
ered with  the  fragments  of  vessels.  Huts  therefore 
placed  within  a  mile  of  each  other  have  been 
thought  necessary  by  many  judicious  persons." 

I  find  in  the  Massachusetts  Magazine  for  the 
year  1791  an  urgent  appeal  for  a  lighthouse  on 
"  a  high  cliff  on  the  east  or  backside  of  Truro  next 
the  sea,  a  certain  part  of  which  is  known  by  the 
name  of  Clay  Pounds."  "  Many  vessels  coming  in 
from  the  sea,  even  when  the  weather  is  not  very  dis- 
tressing," says  the  anonymous  author,  "  are  cast 
away  upon  the  cape  in  the  night  merely  for  want  of 
this  light."  It  must  have  been  built  soon  after 
(in  1798),  for  the  small  voice  goes  on:  "On  the 
first  elevated  spot  (above  the  salt  marsh  at  Truro) 
—  the  Clay  Pounds  —  stands  the  Light  House. 
The  shore  here  turns  to  the  south  and  the  High 
Land  extends  to  the  Table  Land  of  Eastham. 
This  high  land  approaches  the  ocean  with  steep  and 
lofty  banks,  which  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  climb, 
especially  in  a  storm.  In  violent  tempests  during 


96     A   LOITERER    IX    NEW   ENGLAND 

very  high  tides,  the  sea  breaks  against  the  foot  of 
them  rendering  it  then  unsafe  to  walk  on  the 
strand  which  lies  between  them  and  the  ocean. 
Should  the  seaman  succeed  in  his  attempt  to  as- 
cend them  he  must  forbear  to  penetrate  into  the 
country  as  houses  are  generally  so  remote  that  they 
would  escape  his  research  during  the  night :  he  must 
pass  on  to  the  vallies  by  which  the  banks  are  inter- 
sected. These  vallies  which  the  inhabitants  call 
'  Hollows,'  run  at  right  angles  to  the  shore  and  in 
the  middle  or  lowest  part  of  them  a  road  leads  from 
the  dwelling  houses  into  the  sea."  To-day  such 
"  roads  "  are  marked  by  the  broad  tires  of  the  Coast 
Guard  wragons,  a  heavy  wind  storm  or  drenching 
rain  obliterates  the  track  —  in  those  days  it  must 
have  been  more  a  matter  of  instinct  than  eyesight 
to  find  or  follow  them. 

'  The  whole  of  the  coast  from  Cape  Cod  (Prov- 
incetown)  to  Cape  Malebarre  (Monomoy  Point) 
is  sandy  and  free  from  rocks,"  continues  the  an- 
cient guide.  "  Along  the  shore  at  the  distance  of 
half  a  mile  is  a  bar;  which  is  called  the  Outer  Bar, 
because  there  are  smaller  bars  within  it,  perpetu- 
ally varying.  This  outer  bar  is  separated  into 
many  parts  by  guz/les  or  small  channels.  It  ex- 
tends to  Chatham;  and  as  it  proceeds  southward, 
gradually  approaches  the  shore  and  grows  more 


BACK    SIDE    OF    TIIK    CAPK         1)7 

shallow.  Its  general  depth  at  high  water  is  two 
fathoms,  and  three  fathoms  over  the  gir///les;  and 
its  least  distance  from  the  shore  is  ahout  a  furlong. 
Off  the  mouth  of  Chatham  Harbour  there  are  bars 
which  reach  three-quarters  of  a  mile;  and  off  the 
entrance  of  Nauset  Harbour  the  bars  extend  a 
half  of  a  mile.  Large,  heavy  ships  strike  on  the 
outer  bar,  even  at  high  water,  and  their  fragments 
only  reach  the  shore.  But  smaller  vessels  pass  over 
it  at  full  sea  and  when  they  touch  at  low  water  they 
beat  over  it,  as  the  tide  rises,  and  soon  come  to  the 
land.  If  a  vessel  be  cast  away  at  low  water,  it 
ought  to  be  left  with  as  much  expedition  as  pos- 
sible; because  the  fury  of  the  waves  is  then  checked, 
in  some  measure,  by  the  bar;  and  because  the  vessel 
is  generally  broken  to  pieces  with  the  rising  flood. 
But  seamen,  shipwrecked  at  full  sea  ought  to  re- 
main on  board  till  near  low  water;  for  the  vessel 
does  not  then  break  to  pieces;  and  by  attempting 
to  reach  land  before  the  tide  ebbs  away  they  are  in 
great  danger  of  being  drowned.  On  this  subject 
there  is  one  opinion  only  among  judicious  mariners. 
It  may  be  necessary,  however,  to  remind  them  of  a 
truth  of  which  they  have  full  conviction  but  which, 
amidst  the  agitation  and  terror  of  a  storm,  they 
too  frequently  forget." 


CHAPTER   V 

SHIFTING  SANDS:   THE   SPIT  AND 
THE    HOOK 

CAPE  COD  is  the  most  peculiar  feature  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  line.  Not  because  of  its  crescentic 
form,  noted  by  every  navigator  who  brought  news 
of  the  peninsula  to  his  native  land,  which  though 
curious  enough  is  by  no  means  unique,  except  for 
the  great  size  of  the  hook,  many  similarly  formed 
sand  spits  repeat  on  a  small  scale  its  general  out- 
line: but  in  the  bold  manner  in  which  this  salient 
projects  from  the  shore,  in  its  strong  topographical 
relief,  and  in  the  characteristics  of  its  coast  line,  it 
finds  no  parallel  on  this  continent,  perhaps,  indeed, 
in  the  whole  world. 

Though  the  sand  in  some  places  is  three  hundred 
feet  deep,  there  is  believed  to  be  a  backbone  of 
diluvial  rock.  It  used,  however,  confidently  to  be 
asserted  that  Cape  Cod  had  no  backbone,  and  this 
was  currently  believed  until  quite  recent  times, 
when  its  base,  a  solid  mass  of  granite,  was  encoun- 
tered in  dredging  for  the  canal  at  Buzzards  Bay, 
and  proved  a  serious  impediment  to  progress. 

98 


99 

Owing  to  the  very  considerable  changes  that 
shifting  sands  have  made  in  the  contour  of  the 
Cape,  there  has  come  to  be  a  general  opinion,  held 
even  by  well-informed  citizens  of  the  peninsula, 
that  Cape  Cod  is  in  a  process  of  rapid  destruction 
—  that  it  will,  in  the  course  of  some  thousands  of 
years,  be  literally  washed  away.  But  scientists  as- 
sure us  that  so  far  is  this  from  truth  that  the  con- 
verse is  nearer  actual  fact.1 

Yet  the  sands  do  move,  "  cutting  out "  in  one 
place  and  "making  up "  in  another;  and  this  move- 
ment forms  one  of  the  compelling  mysteries  of  the 
Cape,  and  its  chief  fascination. 

Geologists  tell  us  of  the  extremity  of  the  Cape, 
that  all  that  section  of  land  to  the  north  of  High 
Head,  in  Truro,  has  arisen  from  the  sea!  Its  ro- 
mantic construction  occupied  aeons  of  time,  fol- 
lowing immediately  upon  the  heels  of  the  last  gla- 
cial epoch.  We  know  that  all  the  marshes,  bar- 
riers, beaches,  spits,  and  hooks  are  of  post-glacial 
formation;  that  they  have  attached  themselves  to 
the  terra  fir  ma  of  the  promontory  since,  "  by  a  final 
step  of  subsidence,  it  established  its  present  rela- 
tions of  land  and  sea."  (I  quote  the  government 
document.)  And  in  the  "hook,"  which  constitutes 
the  whole  area  of  the  village  of  Provincetown,  we 

1  Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  1898. 


100     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

have  what  geologists  consider  one  of  the  finest  ex- 
isting examples  of  such  forms. 

We  are  then  to  picture  to  ourselves  Cape  Cod 
as  finding  its  terminus,  in  remoter  ages,  in  the  high- 
lands of  Truro,  which,  in  those  days,  are  computed 
to  have  extended  somewhat  farther  to  the  north 
and  east  than  is  now  the  case.  Immediately  upon 
its  release  from  its  icy  chrysalis,  the  waves  of  the 
ocean  set  about  the  demolition  of  what  had  been 
so  laboriously  accomplished,  and  attacking  the  bold 
face  of  the  projection,  with  rhythmic  constancy, 
gradually  wore  down  its  tip  end,  just  as  to-day,  by 
the  same  means,  the  eastern  facade  of  the  Cape, 
from  Truro  to  Eastham  is  suffering  erosion. 
Sometimes  this  work  of  ceaseless  destruction  would 
be  hastened  by  furious  gales,  and  great  chunks  of 
earth  be  torn  away  by  the  lash  of  the  breakers  upon 
the  defenceless  coast. 

But  as  the  waves  tore  down,  the  beneficent  cur- 
rents, catching  the  debris  of  the  destroyer  and 
carrying  the  accumulations  to  the  end  of  the  land, 
began  the  construction  of  that  spit,  which,  growing 
northward,  protected  the  headland  from  further  en- 
croachments of  the  sea,  and  formed  the  base  of 
operations  upon  which  have  been  developed  the 
whole  of  the  desert  beyond,  the  terminating  village 
of  Provincetown,  and  the  tapering  tips  at  Wood 
End  and  Long  Point. 


A   SAND  DUNE  ENCROACHING   UPON   AN   OASIS. 


"OLD  FOREST  BEDS,  LONG   SINCE  BURIED   IN   THE   SANDS, 
CROP  OUT  OCCASIONALLY  TO  PROVE  THAT  A  CONSIDERABLE 
AREA,  NOW  ARID,  WAS  ONCE  PRIMEVAL   FOREST." 


SHIFTING    SANDS  101 

As  the  sandy  extension  pushed  northward  into 
the  Atlantic,  there  was,  at  first,  no  distinct  hook  in 
the  end  of  the  spit,  whose  form  is  supposed  to  have 
resembled  that  of  Monomoy  Island,  at  the  elbow 
of  the  Cape.  The  growth  and  development  of 
these  sandy  formations  appears,  indeed,  to  be  in 
two  directions.  The  erosion  of  the  sea  on  the  east- 
ern face  of  the  peninsula,  has  provided  not  only 
the  sand  which  has  gone  to  construct  the  spit  and 
later  the  hook  of  Provincetown,  but  also  that  which, 
moving  southward,  has  built  the  large  and  beauti- 
ful line  of  barrier  beaches  that  extends  from  below 
Orleans  to  the  end  of  Monomoy  Island.  Though 
a  shallow  water  way  separates  Monomoy,  at  pres- 
ent, from  the  mainland  of  the  Cape,  its  structure 
constitutes  a  spit  of  the  same  general  character,  but 
in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  development  than  that  at 
Provincetown. 

The  sandy  point  of  Chatham,  known  on  the  old 
charts  as  Cape  Mallebarre  —  Cap  Baturicr,  on 
Champlain's  map  —  but  to  the  sailors  of  our  gen- 
eration as  Monomoy  Point,  extends  ten  miles  or 
more  into  the  sea,  towards  Nantucket,  and  is  con- 
tinually gaining  south.  So  rapidly  is  Monomoy 
"making  out"  towards  Nantucket,  that  geologists 
predict  the  reunion  of  that  island  with  the  main- 
land of  the  state,  to  which  it  belongs  by  all  the 


102     A  LOITERER   IX  XE\V  ENGLAND 

sacred  rights  of  consanguinity,  as  the  next  impor- 
tant change  in  the  outline  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

The  present  name  of  Monomoy  is  a  derivative 
from  the  ancient  Indian  name  for  Chatham  —  Mou- 
lt moik.  Monumoik  was  at  the  time  of  its  discovery 
the  residence  of  a  sachem,  and  the  great  heap  of 
shells  found  here  testify  to  the  existence  of  a  large 
aboriginal  population  at  this  place. 

Harwich  marks  the  bend  of  the  railroad,  a 
branch  line  running  out  to  Chatham,  and  above  the 
old  boundaries  of  these  two  townships  lies  the  table- 
land of  Eastham,  which  extends  across  the  Cape, 
here  not  more  than  two  miles  wide.  The  character 
of  the  coast  here  is  particularly  shredded,  having 
been  much  eaten  into  by  the  tides.  In  many  places 
where  there  are  coves  and  creeks,  the  distance  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  bay  shore  is  so  narrow  that  the 
tide  has  been  known  to  flow  across,  and  a  channel 
between  Eastham  and  Orleans  was  once  forced  by 
the  sea. 

It  was  predicted  more  than  a  century  ago  that 
in  the  course  of  years  the  Cape  would  be  rent  asun- 
der at  this  point  by  the  violence  of  the  winds  and 
seas ;  for  this  being  a  narrow  part  of  the  Cape,  and 
near  the  bend,  the  westerly  winds  drive  across  with 
great  violence,  being  accumulated  at  this  point  as 
they  blow  down  the  bay.  In  consequence  of  the 


SHIFTING    SANDS  108 

complete  destruction  of  the  woodland,  writes  an 
observer  of  the  eighteenth  century,  "  the  winds  on 
the  inner  or  westerly  side  have  torn  away  all  vege- 
tation, and  ploughed  up  hundreds  of  acres  in  many 
places  to  a  depth  of  six  feet." 

Opposite  this  place,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Cape, 
was  a  small  tract  of  fertile  land,  remarkable  once 
for  producing  grass  and  wheat,  from  which  East- 
ham  came  to  be  called  "  the  granary  of  the  Cape." 
It  is  also  pointed  out  as  the  one-time  residence  of 
Thomas  Prence,  governor  of  the  old  colony  of 
Plymouth,  he  who,  in  the  name  of  the  colony,  pur- 
chased the  first  parcel  of  Cape  land  from  the 
Indians. 

While  at  present  the  struggle  between  accumu- 
lating sands  and  currents  is  most  active  at  the 
elbow  of  the  Cape,  in  the  beginning  the  chief  con- 
cern of  the  elements  seems  to  have  been  the  achieve- 
ment of  that  vast  desert  area  which  attaches  to  the 
Clay  Pounds  of  Truro. 

The  imagined  process  of  the  growth  of  the  Prov- 
incetown  hook  is  chiefly  by  successive  beaches, 
built  by  the  tides  and  waves  and  currents,  the 
sands  partly  dragged  from  the  coast  line  of  Truro 
and  Wellfleet,  and  partly  cast  from  the  sea  bot- 
tom. As  one  beach  was  finished  another  was 
formed  in  front  of  its  predecessor;  and  as  one  by 


104     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

one  the  dunes  of  the  old  beaches  were  protected  by 
the  new  ones  forming  to  the  north,  they  gradually 
clothed  themselves  with  the  exquisite  vegetation 
still  characteristic  of  the  back  country  of  the  Prov- 
ince Lands,  while  the  depressions  between  the 
ridges,  each  of  which  was  once  a  race  run,  were 
filled,  just  as  Race  Run,  that  sluggish  tidal  stream 
which  empties  into  Herring  Cove,  near  Race  Point, 
is  filling  in  to-day.  Geologists  conjecture  that  the 
famous  Peaked  Hill  Bar,  the  terror  of  all  seamen 
of  this  coast,  is  a  new  beach  in  process  of  formation. 
Along  with  the  carriage  of  sand  by  the  sea  has 
gone  a  considerable  movement  of  materials  by  the 
wind,  to  whose  elemental  force  is  due  the  construc- 
tion of  the  dunes,  whose  marvellous  beauty  is  little 
known  to  the  casual  visitor  to  Provincetown.  Phi- 
losophers tell  us  that  movement  is  life,  and  truly 
the  scene  before  us  in  this  extraordinary  back  coun- 
try knows  no  rest.  Where  the  sea  completes  its 
travail  the  wind  takes  it  up,  rolling  the  great  outer 
sand  ridge,  which  extends  the  whole  length  of  the 
township,  parallel  with  the  sea  beach,  inland 
towards  the  harbour,  like  a  giant  wave,  covering 
lake  and  forest  in  its  progress.  By  the  planting 
of  beach  grass,  shrubs,  and  such  few  trees  as  find 
congenial  rooting  in  this  light  soil,  the  government 
has  succeeded  in  arresting  partially  the  forces  of 


SHIFTING   SANDS  105 

nature,  but  the  seaward  part  of  the  area  is  in  con- 
stant motion. 

The  speed  of  this  movement,  says  the  report  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey  for  1898,  may 
he  judged  by  the  fact  that  in  April,  1897,  a  mass 
of  snow  twenty  feet  in  length  and  two  feet  in  thick- 
ness was  revealed  where  it  had  been  covered  with 
sand  during  the  preceding  winter  to  a  depth  of 
twelve  feet,  the  mass  having  been  subsequently  cut 
through  by  a  change  in  the  scouring  movement  of 
the  wind.  The  rate  of  progression  has  been  esti- 
mated to  be  about  ten  feet  annually,  and  the  north 
wind  is  said  to  carry  more  than  one  million  tons 
of  sand  yearly  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  from  the 
northern  foot  to  the  rear  of  the  ridge. 

As  the  sand  moves  inland,  as  may  be  seen  to-day, 
it  exposes  the  stumps  of  a  long-covered  forest,  and 
reveals,  as  shown  by  stratas  of  loam,  the  undulat- 
ing surface  over  which  it  has  passed.  There  are 
evidences  of  several  surfaces  once  covered  with 
verdure  thus  disclosed. 

The  wild  exotic  beauty  of  the  scene  has  been 
not  inaptly  compared  to  that  of  the  Alexandrian 
deserts;  enthusiasts  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that 
the  prospect  on  approaching  Race  Point  from  the 
Atlantic  is  unequalled  by  the  Egyptian  shores. 
The  wind  whirls  the  dunes  into  fantastic  shapes, 


106     A  LOITKUKK    IX   NEW   KXULAX1) 

and  between  their  irregularities  have  been  formed 
numerous  oases  similar  to  those  of  the  great  deserts. 
Springs  are  found  below  the  surface  of  the  sands 
everywhere,  and  many  of  the  hollows  contain  fresh 
water  ponds,  bordered  by  a  choice  growth  of  tu- 
pelo,  clethra,  and  sweet  azalea;  while  occasionally 
the  silver  birch  will  mingle  with  the  hardier  beeches, 
oaks,  maples,  and  pitch  pines  which  grow  not  only 
in  the  valleys  sheltered  by  the  ridges,  but  even  upon 
their  crests,  where  the  soil  is  nowhere  more  than 
three  or  four  inches  deep,  but  where  moisture,  by 
a  peculiar  provision  of  the  sand  at  Provincetown, 
comes  to  within  a  few  inches  of  the  surface,  even 
during  periods  of  protracted  drought. 

Where  the  mat  of  plant  roots  has  been  dis- 
turbed the  temporarily  anchored  sand  immediately 
takes  up  its  arrested  motion,  and  it  is  no  uncom- 
mon sight  to  see  such  verdant  patches  menaced  by 
the  encroaching  dune  to  windward,  their  green 
trees  and  shrubs  already  half  buried  under  the 
drift  and  doomed  to  certain  extinction. 

Though  now  so  bare  of  prospect,  Provincetown, 
when  first  seen  by  the  Pilgrims,  appeared  to  them 
"wooded  to  the  brink  of  the  sea."  They  described 
the  harbour  as  encircled,  except  in  the  entrance, 
"with  oaks,  pines,  juniper,  sassafras,  and  other 
sweet  wood."  Upon  this,  rejoicing  greatly,  they 


SHIFTING   SANDS  107 

went  ashore  to  see  what  the  character  of  the  land 
might  be,  and  found  it  "  a  small  neck  of  land,"  be- 
Iween  the  bay  and  the  sea,  the  sand  hills  much  like 
the  downs  of  Holland,  but  much  better;  "the  crust 
of  earth  a  spit's  depth,  excellent  black  earth,  all 
wooded  with  oaks,  pines,  sassafras,  juniper,  holly, 
vines,  some  ash,  and  walnut." 

Though  it  appears  we  must  make  some  allow- 
ance for  the  enthusiastic  exaggeration  of  a  people 
weary  of  a  sea  voyage  and  of  their  homeless  state, 
and  predisposed  in  favour  of  a  locality  upon  which 
they  had  built  their  fondest  hopes,  yet  all  the  ac- 
counts of  the  early  explorers  agree  essentially  as  to 
the  wooded  character  of  the  Cape,  especially  of  the 
extremity;  and  old  forest  beds,  long  since  buried 
in  sands,  crop  out  occasionally  to  prove  that  a  con- 
siderable area,  now  arid,  was  once  primeval  forest. 
Tree  stumps,  visible  at  low  tide  near  Wood  End 
Lighthouse,  as  well  as  the  name  of  this  locality, 
bear  out  the  local  tradition  that  the  forest  extended 
well  out  to  the  extreme  point  of  the  Cape  a  century 
and  a  half  ago. 

We  are  told  that  large  schooners  were  once  built 
out  of  the  timber  that  grew  at  Wellfleet,  and  old 
houses  on  the  Cape  are  also  built  of  the  native 
wood.  The  reckless  destruction  of  forests,  without 
regard  to  future  consequences,  seems  to  have  been 


108     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  first  concern  of  the  original  settlers  throughout 
New  England.  At  Cape  Cod  the  trees  were  cut 
off  to  a  great  extent  for  fuel,  not  only  for  heating 
the  houses,  but  to  aid  the  evaporation  of  salt  in 
the  salt  works  that  soon  became  a  prominent  indus- 
try here. 

Practically  every  vestige  of  the  salt  industry  on 
Cape  Cod  has  been  wiped  out.  I  was  fortunate, 
however,  in  meeting,  in  Barnstable,  a  gentleman 
who  had  spent  his  youth  in  the  business  with  his 
father,  who  owned  the  last  salt  works  to  be  operated 
on  the  Cape.  This  gentleman  Avas  able  to  give  me 
a  beautiful  photograph  of  the  remains  of  the  works 
as  they  were  in  1872,  showing  about  half  the  plant 
as  it  was  when  in  active  use,  and  to  point  out  to  me, 
from  the  steps  of  the  court  house  their  exact  loca- 
tion on  Barnstable  Harbour,  looking  across  the 
bay  to  Sandy  Neck.  This  salt  works  occupied 
about  twenty-five  acres  and  was  in  active  opera- 
tion from  180,5  to  1874. 

The  making  of  salt  from  sea  water  by  solar  evap- 
oration was  begun  in  the  town  of  Dennis,  in  1776, 
by  Jacob  Sears,  who  built  of  wood  a  small  vat  near 
the  shore  and  carried  the  water  to  it  in  pails.  His 
project  was  the  subject  of  much  ridicule  by  his 
neighbours,  who  styled  it  "  Sears'  Folly."  Jacob 
Sears  made  eight  bushels  that  year.  The  next  year 


SALT  WORKS   OF   LORING   CROCKER   AT   BARNSTABLE   IN    lS/2. 
THESE  WERE  THE  LAST  TO  BE  OPERATED  ON   CAPE  COD. 


SHIFTING    SANDS  109 

he  made  a  vat  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  long  and 
sixty  feet  wide  and  his  crop  was  thirty  bushels  of 
salt.  His  perseverance  may  be  the  better  appre- 
ciated when  we  know  that  it  took  from  eighty  to 
one  hundred  bushels  of  water  to  make  one  bushel 
of  salt.  Three  years  later  Jacob  Sears  made  an- 
other improvement;  he  secured  a  pump  from  a 
vessel  which  had  been  wrecked  near  by,  said  to  have 
been  the  British  frigate  Somerset,  and  pumped  the 
water  into  his  vats  by  hand. 

In  1785  Reuben  Sears  evolved  the  idea  of  em- 
ploying windmills  to  pump  the  water  into  the  vats 
and  built  the  first  of  its  kind  used  for  this  purpose. 
From  this  invention  the  industry  grew  rapidly 
under  the  fostering  care  of  the  government  until 
the  year  1799,  when  the  output  was  nearly  four 
hundred  thousand  bushels  of  salt,  while  the  vats 
spread  over  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  of  square 
feet  of  uplands.  The  industry  increased  and  was 
at  its  best  about  1825,  after  which  it  declined,  and 
after  1875  was  entirely  abandoned. 

Meanwhile  the  inroad  upon  the  woods  occasioned 
by  this  industry  was  appalling.  Every  feature  of 
the  process  called  for  wood.  The  vats  were  built 
upon  studding  of  soft  pine,  the  water  drawn,  by 
wooden  windmills,  through  hollow  logs  as  required. 
They  varied  in  length  but  were  uniformly  eighteen 


110    A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAND 

feet  wide  and  were  built  on  sloping  ground  in  sev- 
eral tiers  to  enable  the  water  to  flow  from  one  vat 
to  another,  depositing  various  impurities  before  it 
made  salt.  The  vats  were  uncovered  to  the  sun  and 
air  but  the  process  of  evaporation  was  aided  by 
artificial  heat,  which  meant  the  consumption  of 
more  wood. 

Much  timber  was  also  employed  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  "  flakes,"  for  drying  fish,  which  at  first 
surrounded  every  dwelling  house.  Even  so  late 
as  Thoreau's  day  he  describes  them  "  close  up  to 
the  sills  on  all  sides,  with  only  a  narrow  passage  two 
or  three  feet  wide,  to  the  front  door;  so  that  instead 
of  looking  out  into  a  flower  or  grass  plot  you  looked 
on  to  so  many  square  rods  of  cod  turned  wrong 
side  outwards.  .  .  .  There  were  flakes  of  every  age 
and  pattern,  and  some  so  rusty  and  overgrown  with 
lichens  that  they  looked  as  if  they  might  have 
served  the  founders  of  the  fishery  here."  No 
doubt  they  had,  though  some,  he  said,  had  broken 
down  under  the  weight  of  successive  harvests.  All 
early  writers  make  allusion  to  this  feature  of  the 
unique  town,  where  the  drying  of  fish  took  the  place 
of  agricultural  pursuits,  and  was  spoken  of  amongst 
the  natives  in  haying  terms  —  for  the  fish  had  to  be 
"turned"  and  "stacked"  with  the  same  constant 
reference  to  weather. 


SHIFTING   SANDS  111 

Forest  fires  contributed  their  quota  towards  the 
clearing  of  the  wooded  territory,  and  besides  this 
cattle  were  allowed  to  range  freely  feeding  upon 
the  grasses  and  shrubs,  so  important  in  controlling 
the  drifting  sands  of  the  Cape.  A  writer  in  the 
year  1790  says  that  there  were  but  two  horses  and 
two  yoke  of  oxen  kept  in  the  town,  but  that  about 
fifty  cows  were  pastured  in  the  sunken  ponds 
and  marshy  places  found  between  the  sand  hills. 
"  Here,"  says  he,  "  the  cows  are  seen  wading  and 
even  swimming,  plunging  their  heads  into  the 
water  up  to  their  horns,  picking  a  scanty  subsist- 
ence from  the  roots  and  herbs  produced  in  the 
water."  In  winter  they  were  fed  upon  the  sedge 
cut  in  the  flats,  and  this  old  writer  goes  on  to  ex- 
plain that  a  small  quantity  of  such  grasses,  impreg- 
nated with  the  virtues  of  the  sea  air,  is  far  more 
nutritive  to  cattle  than  a  greater  amount  inland. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  the  released  sand  areas 
began  to  encroach  upon  the  little  town  and  to 
threaten  the  destruction  of  the  valuable  harbour 
that  any  effort  was  made  to  check  the  depredations 
upon  the  protective  vegetation  of  the  Cape.  By 
this  time  the  mischief  was  so  great  that  the  situa- 
tion had  become  indeed  critical.  When  the  sand 
blasts  to  the  rear  of  the  dwellings  became  so  severe 
as  to  convert  clear  glass  window-panes  into  opaque 


112     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

ground  glass  during  the  progress  of  one  storm, 
even  the  most  benighted  of  the  citizens  began  to 
realize  that  "something  must  be  done"  beyond 
the  expedient  of  raising  the  houses  upon  stilts  — 
which  meant  further  inroads  upon  the  woods  —  to 
allow  the  sand  to  blow  under  them,  instead  of  bury- 
ing them  as  had  sometimes  happened. 

And  the  sand,  of  course,  blew  into  the  harbour, 
filling  it  up  so  rapidly  that  many  houses  now  stand 
where  a  century  ago  small  boats  found  convenient 
anchorage.  Finally  the  complete  destruction,  for 
all  practical  purposes,  of  East  Harbour,  as  a 
sample  of  what  might  be  expected  from  the  en- 
croaching sands,  roused  the  citizens  from  their  leth- 
argy—  a  fresh- water  marsh  marks  its  original  site 
—  and  one  of  the  first  ordinances  recorded  by  the 
township  of  Truro  forbade  the  cutting  of  timber 
on  the  lands  bordering  upon  that  body  of  water. 
This  was  in  1703.  Formerly  boats  entered  East 
Harbour  through  a  narrow  channel  of  swift  water 
which  separated  Beach  Point  from  the  Truro  side. 
Over  this  channel  has  been  built,  with  great  diffi- 
culty, a  dike  or  causeway,  over  which  the  Cape 
road  leads  to  Provincetown.  The  fresh-water 
marsh,  now  called  Pilgrim  Lake,  furnishes  ice  in 
winter,  as  do  most  of  the  ponds  among  the  dunes 
in  the  region  "  out  back,"  while,  at  the  proper 


SHIFTING   SANDS  113 

season,  sportsmen  in  flat-bottomed  row  boats  may 
be  seen  amongst  the  marsh  grass  and  cat-o'-nine- 
tails which  border  its  extent,  lying  in  wait  for 
ducks. 

Truro  suffered  bitterly  from  the  extinction  of 
her  harbour,  and  was  further  afflicted  by  the  filling 
up  of  Stouts  Creek,  to  which  we  find  many  allu- 
sions in  the  old  writings  concerning  this  part  of 
the  Cape.  Stouts  Creek  emptied  into  the  back 
side  —  near  its  head  stood  one  of  the  first  huts 
erected  by  the  Humane  Society  —  and  it  is  de- 
scribed as  having  been  a  small  branch  of  Kast  Har- 
bour. Originally  it  fertilized  a  body  of  salt  marsh 
upon  which  bordered  once  valuable  farms;  the 
meadow  was  mown  every  year  and  yielded  a  con- 
siderable income  to  the  proprietors  of  the  farms 
and  to  the  people  of  Truro:  but,  as  early  as  1802, 
the  marsh  is  referred  to  as  "  long  since  destroyed," 
while  the  creek  then  scarcely  existed,  "  appearing 
only  like  a  small  depression  in  the  sand,"  and  en- 
tirely dry  at  half  tide.  To-day  no  vestige  of  any- 
thing remains  to  establish  even  the  location  of  the 
creek,  the  marsh,  or  the  farms. 

In  these  early  days  "  Cape  Cod  "  was  a  part  of 
Truro.  When,  in  1714,  it  was  made  a  district  or 
precinct,  under  the  "  constableric "  of  Truro,  one 
of  the  first  official  measures  of  the  provincial  legis- 


114     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

lature  was  an  act  to  protect  the  harbour  by  restrict- 
ing the  rights  of  citizens  or  "  sojourners  "  to  cut  the 
wood  or  permit  cattle  to  browse  in  the  salt  marshes. 
At  the  same  time  the  boxing  and  barking  of  pine 
trees  for  the  production  of  pitch  and  turpentine 
was  prohibited  by  a  state  statute. 

It  was  one  thing  to  pass  acts,  however,  and  quite 
another  to  enforce  them,  when  the  sentiment  of  the 
public  was  not  in  their  favour.  The  solitary  keeper 
could  not  successfully  oppose  the  depredations  of 
his  townsmen,  and  the  devastation  appears  to  have 
gone  on  hand  in  hand  with  the  expenditure  of 
yearly  increasing  sums  to  arrest  the  movement  of 
the  sands. 

A  large  sum  was  wasted  in  building  a  sea  wall 
to  prevent  the  encroachment  of  the  tides.  Tight 
bulkheads  and  plank  jetties  were  erected  at  Beach 
Point  and  Long  Point,  involving  immense  labour 
and  enormous  expense,  and  were  no  sooner  finished 
than  the  whole  thing  was  swept  away  in  one  good 
gale. 

For  more  than  a  century  great  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  planting  of  beach  grasses  on  the 
side  of  the  hills  and  other  naked  spots  near  the 
town.  The  roots  are  set  three  or  four  feet  apart  in 
the  spring,  and  the  grass,  being  propagated  both 
by  the  roots  and  the  seed,  if  given  half  a  chance, 


"THE  WIND  WHIRLS  THE  DUNES  INTO  FANTASTIC  SHAPES." 


SHIFTING   SANDS  115 

forms  a  close  body  in  three  or  four  years.  But 
when  the  government  first  set  about  this  planting, 
instead  of  setting  the  grass  in  low  places  where  it 
would  spread,  they  planted  it  on  the  hills  where 
it  had  the  full  rake  from  the  sea;  the  wind  blew  it 
out  and  nothing  was  accomplished. 

Furthermore  it  has  been  found  out  by  bitter  ex- 
perience that  in  order  to  make  an  effective  barrier 
against  drifting  sands,  and  to  give  them  stable 
character,  the  grass  must  be  protected  by  the  plant- 
ing of  shrubs,  and  the  shrubs  in  turn  fortified  by 
trees,  and  that  it  is  only  when  the  three  are  in 
alliance  that  the  sand  can  be  kept  at  bay.  An 
examination  of  the  waste  lands  of  the  back  side 
now  will  show  that  once  the  mat  of  the  plant  roots 
is  removed  from  a  windward  slope,  the  northwest 
gales  cut  into  the  wounded  part  of  the  dune  and 
proceed  to  undermine  the  adjacent  plant-covered 
slopes.  Some  of  the  most  exquisite  Japanese  ef- 
fects are  obtained  by  this  destructive  process.  The 
crest  of  such  a  wounded  dune,  its  slope  descending 
precipitously  into  a  deep  hollow,  will  show  along 
its  jagged  summit,  against  the  sky,  the  beautiful 
tracery  of  the  roots  in  marvellous  design. 

There  is  a  wild  grandeur  about  the  desolation  of 
the  dunes  back  of  Provincetown  that  has  its  own 
allure.  Comprising  about  six  thousand  acres,  less 


than  half  of  which  are  wooded,  their  extent  appears 
quite  vast  and  illimitable  enough  to  create  the  illu- 
sion of  a  great  desert.  The  sand  itself,  composed 
wholly  of  drift  quartz,  is  very  coarse  compared  with 
the  silvery  sands  of  the  Jersey  beaches.  It  is  of  a 
rich  golden  hue  —  taken  in  the  hand  it  seems  largely 
composed  of  ground  cadmium.  In  itself  it  is  val- 
uable for  many  purposes,  but  its  exportation  ap- 
pears to  have  been  discontinued;  however,  I  notice 
that  in  Boston  sand  very  like  it  is  used  in  winter 
upon  slippery  pavements  with  excellent  effect. 
Old  contracts  for  particular  people  frequently 
specified  the  use  of  Cape  Cod  sand  in  the  composi- 
tion of  mortar  to  be  used  in  the  masonry  of  build- 
ings. It  was  also  used  for  cutting  marble  and 
granite,  and  a  famous  glass  factory,  employing  the 
native  product,  was  once  in  operation  in  Sandwich. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE    PROVINCE    LANDS 

PROVIXCETOWN,  or  Province  Town,  as  it  used 
to  be  written,  derives  its  name  from  an  earlier  des- 
ignation of  the  sandy  extremity  of  the  Cape.  From 
a  line  running  from  the  bay  beach  to  the  back  side, 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Atkins-Mayo  Road,  which  it 
crosses,  the  whole  of  the  hook  was  set  apart  in  the 
general  allotment  of  property  by  the  Pilgrim 
fathers  as  having  no  value  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses, and  reserved  as  a  colonial  fishing  right  to 
be  held  in  common  by  the  Colony  of  New 

f  •/ 

Plymouth. 

The  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  had  received  by 
royal  patent  a  grant  of  all  the  coast  from  Cohasset 
to  Narragansett  in  1629-1630.  The  colony  in  turn 
granted  parts  of  its  domain  to  several  sub-colonies. 
The  ordinary  act  of  setting  up  a  town  in  Massachu- 
setts began  with  a  grant  of  land  from  the  general 
court  to  a  body  of  inhabitants;  this  body  of  inhabit- 
ants then  divided  up  the  land;  but  in  the  case  of 
"Cape  Cod"  that  grant  of  land  was  omitted  —  all 
the  other  titles  and  privileges  were  given  but  the 

117 


118    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

title  to  the  land  was  withheld.  When  the  governor 
of  Plymouth,  under  an  order  of  the  general  court, 
in  order  to  substantiate  his  claim  to  the  territory, 
purchased  this  tract  from  its  aboriginal  possessors, 
he  specifically  mentions  that  the  said  lands  were 
"assigned  for  the  Collonie's  use  for  ffishing 
Improvements." 

Later,  in  1692,  when  the  Plymouth  Colony  was 
merged  with  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  the 
lands  at  the  Cape  being  still  reserved  by  the  prov- 
ince for  the  benefit  of  the  community,  came  to  be 
called  "  province  lands." 

When,  in  1727,  "  Cape  Cod  "  was  separated  from 
Truro,  and  incorporated  into  a  township  under  the 
name  of  Province  Town,  an  important  provision  of 
the  act  reserved  to  the  province  its  right  to  the  land, 
which  right,  it  was  stipulated,  should  be  "  in  no  wise 
prejudiced,  the  lands  to  be  held  in  common  as 
heretofore." 

When  the  provincial  government  came  to  an 
end  these  lands,  expressly  reserved  to  the  prov- 
ince, became  the  property  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts. 

Until  1893  the  state  owned  even  the  building 
sites  upon  which  all  private  residences,  shops, 
wharves,  public  buildings,  etc.,  stood,  there  being 
no  individual  land  proprietors  in  Provincetown,  an 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS          ill) 

unusual  situation  leading-  to  much  dissatisfaction 
and  misunderstanding  amongst  residents,  and  many 
appeals.  Finally,  in  the  year  mentioned,  against 
the  better  judgement  of  those  who  placed  the  wel- 
fare of  the  commonwealth  above  the  personal  con- 
siderations of  a  comparatively  few  disgruntled  citi- 
zens, a  measure  was  railroaded  through  the  state 
legislature  by  which  about  a  thousand  acres,  in- 
cluding the  whole  of  the  inhabited  portion  of  Prov- 
incetown,  were  released  to  the  population  in  occu- 
pancy, and  a  line  was  fixed  separating  the  Province 
Lands  from  the  village  of  Provincetown. 

Previous  to  the  passage  of  this  act  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  in  all  official  documents  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Provincetown  were  always  referred  to  as 
"  holders  "  or  as  "  occupants  "  of  the  lands,  never 
as  "  owners."  In  practice,  however,  the  inhabit- 
ants, either  wilfully  or  in  true  ignorance  of  the  law, 
asserted  the  right  of  ownership,  based  on  a  variety 
of  claims,  including  peaceable  possession  for  a  cen- 
tury, staking,  fencing,  inheritance  by  will,  pur- 
chase, warranty  deeds  passed  amongst  themselves, 
and  above  all  "  local  customs  and  usages."  It  seems 
very  curious,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  there 
are  to-day  people  owning  property  in  Province- 
town  who  have  never  heard  of  the  former  state 
ownership  of  their  lands. 


120     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

By  this  statute  private  ownership  is  still  impos- 
sible in  the  reserved  portion  lying  to  the  north  and 
west  of  the  established  line.  This  line  follows  more 
or  less  in  the  track  of  the  Atkins-Mayo  Road 
through  the  wooded  belt  to  the  dunes,  in  a  direc- 
tion which,  if  followed  across  to  the  back  side, 
would  come  out  about  half  way  between  the  Peaked 
Hill  Bar  and  the  Crow  Hill  life  saving  stations; 
but  turning  sharply  to  the  west  not  far  beyond  the 
railroad  tracks  it  pursues  a  zig-zag  course  in  that 
general  direction  for  about  three  miles,  and  turns 
back  again  to  the  bay  shore,  meeting  the  coast  at 
about  the  point  where  the  Pilgrims  are  said  to  have 
landed,  enclosing  the  town.  This  excludes  Long 
Point,  Wood  End,  Race  Point,  and  the  greater  part 
of  that  extensive  desert  area  behind  the  protective 
belt  of  woodland,  all  of  which,  with  the  exception 
of  Long  Point,  ceded  to  the  federal  government 
during  the  Civil  War,  still  is  held  as  state  property, 
under  the  original  title  of  the  Province  Lands. 

This  property,  originally  held  by  the  forefathers 
to  protect  the  fishing  interests  of  the  Cape,  is  now 
retained  by  the  commonwealth  as  an  important 
measure  for  the  conservation  of  the  harbour,  thus 
enabling  the  authorities  to  exercise  a  more  effective 
surveillance  than  would  be  possible  were  the  areas 
under  private  ownership. 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS          121 

The  "  ffishing  Improvements  "  were  considered  a 
very  valuable  and  important  asset  to  the  fore- 
fathers. Cape  Cod  had  established  a  reputation 
with  this  regard  before  they  came  to  these  shores, 
for  had  not  Captain  John  Smith  reported  that  five 
hundred  sail  of  fishermen  had  rendezvous  at  the 
harbour,  which  they  used  as  a  refuge  and  as  a  head- 
quarters for  their  "  bacchanalia  "?  It  was  they  who 
began  the  slaughter  of  the  native  woods,  and  they 
formed  in  a  sense  the  first  residents. 

The  Pilgrims  made  of  the  tip  of  the  Cape  a 
source  of  considerable  revenue  to  their  colony.  In 
early  days,  before  any  settlement  was  made  here, 
the  industrious  forefathers  worked  their  claim  to 
the  fishing  privileges  in  the  waters  around  Cape 
Cod  largely  during  the  summer  season,  using  the 
land  for  curing  their  fish,  and  returning  to  Plym- 
outh in  the  autumn. 

The  original  tract,  now  comprising  the  village 
of  Provincetown,  with  Long  Point  across  the  har- 
bour, and  the  immense  area  of  dunes  from  sea  to 
sea,  and  extending  east  as  far  as  a  stream,  named 
in  the  deed  as  Lovell's  Creek,  in  Truro,  was  pur- 
chased from  the  Indians  for  the  government  and 
colony  of  New  Plymouth,  for  the  colony's  use,  in 
the  year  16.54,  "or  sometime  before  that  date." 
The  first  deed  of  the  land  was  given  by  an  Indian 


122     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

called  "  Sampson  "  to  Thomas  Prence,  the  gover- 
nor of  the  colony,  the  consideration  being  "  2  brasse 
kettles,  six  coates,  twelve  houes,  12  axes,  12  knives, 
and  a  box."  This  deed  was  not  recorded  and  all 
trace  of  it  has  been  lost,  but  we  know  of  its  exist- 
ence and  its  conditions  because  it  is  referred  to  in 
a  deed  issued  twenty-five  years  later,  confirming 
the  first  one,  and  issued  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
claims  of  the  Indians,  "  Peter  "  and  "  Joshua,"  to 
part  of  the  territory  disposed  of  by  Sampson  with- 
out their  knowledge  or  consent.  The  claims  of 
"Peter"  and  "Joshua"  were  satisfied  by  the  addi- 
tional payment  of  £5  10s.,  and  the  original  of  this 
deed,  made  to  John  Freeman,  one  of  the  assistants 
of  the  colony,  "in  behalf  of  the  Government  and 
Collonie  of  New  Plymouth,"  is  preserved  in  the 
office  of  the  secretary  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  confirmatory  deed  is  a  delicious  document, 
very  meticulous  as  to  boundaries.  Peter  and 
Joshua  claimed,  it  seems,  a  piece  (or  prsell)  of  land 
"  lying  between  sea  and  sea,  from  Lovell's  Creek 
to  Little  Pond,  called  by  the  Indians  Weakwolth- 
tagesett,  ranging  from  thence  by  a  marked  pyne 
tree  southerly  by  a  smale  Red  oak  tree  marked 
standing  on  the  easterly  end  of  the  clift  called  by 
the  Indians  Letistotogsett,  because  Cormorants 
used  to  roost  there,"  etc. 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS          123 

The  Indians,  Peter  and  Joshua,  who  had  learned 
something  since  Sampson  sold  his  birthright,  re- 
served for  themselves  and  their  heirs  the  right  to 
"sett  theire  Wigwams  there  —  to  cut  firewood  and 
beach  grasse  and  flages  for  their  use,  and  to  gather 
wild  pease  huckleberryes  and  cramberries"  (the  m 
is  not  a  misprint,  and  I  like  it,  for  it  was  as  cram- 
berries  that  I  first  learned  to  love  this  delicious 
fruit)  "and  to  have  such  Whales  and  Blackffish 
porpusses  and  blubber  as  should  cast  on  shore  be- 
tween the  said  Louell's  Creek  and  the  Clift  afore- 
said." This  deed  is  dated  February  5,  1679. 

It  is  rather  satisfactory  to  note  throughout  the 
dealings  of  the  Pilgrims  with  the  aborigines  a  strict 
sense  of  justice  and  honesty.  By  these  deeds  we 
see  that  the  Plymouth  colonists  recognized  the  title 
of  the  Pamet  Indians  to  the  Cape,  and  took  care 
not  to  dispossess  by  force  or  by  trick,  but  to  pur- 
chase the  lands  in  equity. 

The  origin  of  the  first  permanent  settlement  of 
Cape  Cod  is  shrouded  in  mystery,  but  its  probable 
date  has  been  fixed  at  about  1680.  Squatter  fisher- 
men from  various  places  certainly  formed  the  first 
settlers.  Under  the  old  ruling  fishermen  living  in 
the  town  might  take  as  much  of  the  unoccupied 
common  lands  as  necessary  for  their  homes  and 
their  industry,  and  any  part  of  the  shore  —  not  al- 


124     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

ready  in  use  —  to  the  extent  of  their  needs.  To 
offset  the  disadvantage  of  not  being  permitted  to 
own  land,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Province  Lands 
were  for  more  than  a  century  (until  1790)  exempt 
from  taxation  and  accorded  further  privileges  in 
order  to  encourage  settlement,  not  only  to  provide 
a  shelter  in  conjunction  with  a  harbour  of  such  pri- 
mary importance,  but  in  recognition  of  the  great 
public  benefit  of  the  employment  of  its  citizens. 
The  lands  of  Cape  Cod  could  never  support  its  in- 
habitants—  it  is  therefore  as  a  nursery  for  seamen 
that  it  was  then,  and  is  still,  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant places  in  the  country. 

The  custom  of  leasing  the  bass  fishery  at  the 
Cape  to  such  roving  fishermen  as  applied  was  early 
established;  and  the  income  thus  derived  was  used 
to  support  the  schools  of  Barnstable,  Plymouth, 
Duxbury,  and  other  towns  in  the  colony.  After- 
wards, as  the  income  increased,  it  was  extended  to 
other  public  uses.  We  find  in  the  rare  early  rec- 
ords of  Cape  Cod  that,  in  the  year  1684,  the  bass 
fishing  was  leased  to  William  Clark,  of  Plymouth, 
for  a  term  of  seven  years,  at  £30  per  annum. 

The  village  of  Provincetown  is  built  along  a 
narrow  strip  of  reclaimed  land  lying  in  the  lee  of  the 
inner  range  of  dunes  bordering  the  harbour.  This 
inner  range  of  hills  begins  at  Mount  Ararat  and 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS  125 

Mount  Gilboa,  back  of  East  Harbour,  and,  fol- 
lowing the  semicircular  contour  of  the  shore,  ter- 
minates in  Stevens'  Point,  Telegraph  Hill,  Miller 
Hill,  and  Town  Hill,  that  landmark  for  miles 
around,  upon  whose  summit  stands  the  Pilgrim 
Monument.  Bradford  Street  in  part  runs  over  the 
crest  of  the  inner  range,  commanding  superb  bird's- 
eye  views  of  the  harbour,  while  Commercial  Street 
hugs  the  shore  line,  the  bulk  of  the  population  being 
lined  up  on  the  inner  side  facing  that  absorbing 
spectacle. 

The  town  is  altogether  unique.  Thoreau  called 
it  the  most  completely  maritime  town  he  had  ever 
seen,  and  his  description,  except  for  the  loss  of 
the  picturesque  windmills  of  the  salt  works,  on  the 
water  side,  might  stand  to-day,  so  little  has  the 
town  changed  in  general  character  in  the  last  sixty 
years.  It  is  still  merely  "an  inhabited  beach  .  .  . 
without  any  back  country."  I  suppose  every  sum- 
mer visitor  feels  the  same  disappointment  with 
Provincetown  upon  his  first  encounter  —  the  place 
has  so  little  the  character  of  a  resort,  and  while 
the  people  are  the  kindest  and  most  hospitable 
to  be  found  in  all  New  England,  there  is  so  little 
domination  by  the  summer  colony. 

We  think  of  ourselves  as  bringing  so  much  life 
and  gaiety  to  such  a  place  and  picture  the  "na- 


126     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

lives "  disconsolate  after  our  departure ;  but  my 
landlady  told  me  in  confidence  that  she  "  liked  bet- 
ter when  the  summer  folks  had  gone,  and  they  ain't 
so  much  passin'." 

The  "  passin' "  is  indeed  a  consideration  in  Prov- 
incetown,  since  it  all  takes  place  along  that  narrow 
plank  walk,  built  on  the  inner  side  of  Commercial 
Street  from  the  town's  share  of  the  surplus  reve- 
nue distributed  by  the  state  in  Jackson's  adminis- 
tration. "  Up  along  "  and  "  down  along  "  it  runs 
for  a  good  three  miles  before  the  residential  edging 
of  the  sand-hills,  and  is  the  only  paving  that  the 
town  affords;  for  those  who  would  tramp  Brad- 
ford Street,  or  cut  through  the  narrow  lanes  that 
connect,  at  intervals,  the  two  thoroughfares,  must 
take  to  the  dirt  road,  itself,  however,  a  vast  improve- 
ment over  the  heavy  sandy  ways  of  half  a  century 
ago.  Thoreau  speaks  of  pictures  of  Provincetown 
in  which  the  inhabitants  are  not  drawn  below  the 
ankles,  so  much  being  supposed  to  be  buried  in  the 
sand.  And  one  has  not  to  go  far  afield  to  experi- 
ence the  probable  truth  of  this  whimsical  statement. 
As  to  the  peculiar  Provincetown  gait,  by  which  the 
girls  in  those  days  were  said  to  dump  the  sand  from 
their  slippers  at  each  step,  though  I  questioned 
many  they  smiled  knowingly  and  would  give  no 
satisfactory  answer.  I  susnect  it  is  an  art  like  the 


THE  PROVINCE   LANDS:    "GOING   GUNNING". 
FROM   A   WATER   COLOUR   BY    DODGE    MAC  KNIGHT. 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS          127 

wearing  of  the  kilt,  to  which  one  is  born,  and  no 
trick  to  be  caught  by  a  floating  population. 

One  thing  we  all  noticed  was  a  supreme  superi- 
ority of  the  "  natives  "  in  their  attitude  towards  the 
plank  walk.  We  summer  folks  were  vastly  con- 
scious of  its  limits,  and  scrupulously  made  room  for 
one  another  to  pass,  whereas  the  indigenous  seemed 
oblivious  to  its  advantages  —  they  never  turned 
aside  for  anybody,  would  crowd  you  into  the  street 
or  on  to  the  sandy  margin  with  utmost  unconcern 
and  apparent  rudeness ;  but  on  the  other  hand  they 
themselves  walked  as  readily  in  one  place  as  an- 
other. It  was  not  until  I  happened  to  read  that 
some  of  the  inhabitants  were  so  provoked  because 
they  did  not  receive  their  particular  share  in  the 
surplus  revenue,  that  they  persisted  in  walking  in 
the  sand  a  long  time  after  the  sidewalk  was  built, 
that  I  began  to  understand.  Added  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  New  England  character  it  furnished  the  key 
to  the  whole  situation. 

There  was  old  Nathaniel  Woodbury,  at  Folly 
Cove;  he  opposed  the  building  of  the  trolley  car 
line  that  passed  his  property  in  circling  Cape  Ann. 
His  official  protest  availed  nothing,  and  the  road 
was  built;  so  during  the  remainder  of  his  long  life 
the  old  man  proceeded  to  ignore  the  existence  of 
the  offence.  When  he  walked  out  he  walked  in  the 


128     A  LOITERER  IX  XEW  ENGLAND 

middle  of  the  track,  and,  as  he  was  totally  deaf  and 
well  known  to  the  motor  men  of  the  line,  most  of 
whom  are  Gloucester  boys,  they  had  no  choice  but 
to  murder  him  or  to  stop  the  car  and  escort  the  ob- 
stinate old  fellow  out  of  the  way.  Of  course  they 
chose  the  more  humane  course,  and  it  became  a 
typical  scene  at  the  Folly,  to  see  a  stalled  car  and  a 
courtly  motorman  leading  Mr.  Woodbury  out  of 
harm's  way.  I  made  the  faux  pas  one  day  of  asking 
the  old  gentleman  what  time  the  cars  passed  for 
Gloucester,  and  he  answered  with  a  certain  fine 
irony,  standing  beneath  the  beautiful  apple  trees  of 
his  ancestral  home:  "  They  run  by  right  often  when 
they  ain't  off  track  —  but  they  're  generally  off 
track."  And  so  having  deftly  damned  them  as  in- 
efficient modern  trivialities,  he  turned  his  sea-blue 
eyes  off  to  that  point  of  the  horizon  where  their 
color  found  its  counterpart  and  relapsed  into  a 
sphinx-like  reverie. 

No.  Provincetown  is  not  beautiful  in  the  ac- 
cepted sense  of  the  term.  There  are  no  grassy 
lawns  sweeping  down  to  the  sea,  as  at  Magnolia 
and  Prides;  there  is  no  cliff  walk,  as  at  Newport; 
there  are  no  clean  swept  sheltered  nooks  along  the 
sands,  as  at  Annisquam;  no  dreamy,  antiquated 
burying  ground,  as  at  Plymouth;  while  the  ap- 
proach to  its  piece  dc  resistance,  that  heavenly 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS  129 

back  country,  that  dream  of  dunes,  ponds,  and 
cranberry  bogs  is  infested  with  a  belligerent  horde 
of  mosquitoes,  through  which  one  must  pass,  as  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  through  the  flames. 

The  lure  of  Provincetown  is  deeper  and  more 
substantial.  It  adapts  itself  to  the  summer  resi- 
dents with  the  same  complaisance  that  it  tolerates 
the  increasing  presence  of  the  Portuguese.  Both 
bring  changes  with  them;  both  contribute  to  the 
growth  and  prosperity  of  the  town ;  but  neither  de- 
flects it  from  its  course.  In  this  respect  Province- 
town  has  much  in  common  with  foreign  seaport 
towns,  or  for  that  matter  with  foreign  metropolitan 
cities.  Paris,  in  the  old  happy  days,  did  not  stand 
still  to  admire  the  innovations  of  the  etrangers, 
neither  did  it  alter  its  ways  because  of  them;  it 
graciously  permitted  them  to  enjoy  its  beauty  and 
share  its  privileges. 

Provincetown  does  the  same,  and  so  far  as  I  can 
see,  beyond  the  erection  of  a  few  pergolas  and  lat- 
ticed screens,  at  the  east  end  of  the  town,  the  city 
folks  have  had  no  effect  at  all  upon  its  intrinsic 
quaintness.  The  chief,  the  sole,  the  endless  indus- 
try of  the  town  is  fishing,  and  the  Portuguese  who 
have  come  there  have  been  taken  and  shaped  to  that 
end.  What  local  colour  they  have  added  is  to  the 
picturesque  advantage  of  the  town;  they  have  their 


130     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

"  quarter "  in  the  west  end,  and  have  redeemed 
some  of  the  waste  land  in  the  rear.  The  first  of  the 
Portuguese  settlers  were  brought  as  stowaways 
from  the  Azores  by  the  old  whalers  and  deep-sea 
fishers  who  touched  at  these  islands,  and  many  of 
them  emigrated  in  this  surreptitious  fashion  to 
avoid  military  duty.  Since  they  are  excellent  fish- 
ermen they  make  useful  citizens,  and  though  they 
do  not  assimilate  with  the  Cape  Cod  folks,  yet  I 
believe  the  Latin  influence  has  had  a  softening  ef- 
fect in  the  temper  of  this  locality,  just  as  the  Scan- 
dinavians and  Finnish  have  intensified  the  harder 
features  of  Cape  Ann. 

The  flakes  and  the  salt  works  have  given  place  to 
cold-storage  plants,  and  the  native  product  is 
handled  more  in  wholesale  than  formerly,  and  many 
of  the  smaller  wharves  are  rotting  away,  a  number 
having  been  lost  in  the  unprecedented  rigors  of 
winter  before  last.  Railroad  wharf  presents  the 
scene  of  greatest  activity,  especially  on  a  Saturday 
night,  when  the  mackerel  schooners  discharge  their 
cargoes,  and  the  men  can  be  seen,  by  the  light  of 
torches,  standing  knee  deep  in  the  shimmering,  iri- 
descent fish,  tossing  them  to  the  receivers  through 
the  great  open  doors  of  the  fish  house,  where  all 
through  the  week  they  are  split,  cleaned,  salted,  and 
packed  in  barrels;  or  unloading  them  direct  upon 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS          131 

the  cars  that  will  carry  them  to  Boston,  by  means 
of  an  instrument  with  one  iron  prong  built  on  the 
pitchfork  plan.  To  facilitate  this  business,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  a  branch  of  the  railroad  is  car- 
ried far  out  on  the  long  wharf,  uniting  the  one  kind 
of  transportation  with  the  other. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  settlement  of  Province- 
town  began  on  what  is  now  known  as  Long  Point, 
that  remote  extension  of  the  hook,  marking  the  ter- 
mination of  the  spiral  enclosing  the  harbour. 
Thirty-eight  families,  with  a  total  of  about  two 
hundred  souls,  once  constituted  the  active  popula- 
tion of  this  strip  of  sand,  having  chosen  that  locality 
on  account  of  its  proximity  to  the  fishing  grounds, 
by  which  it  was  indeed  surrounded.  It  was  for 
these  to  suffer  the  full  penalty  for  having  occupied 
the  Province  Lands  —  for  the  federal  government 
laid  claim  to  the  point  as  a  measure  of  war  during 
the  Rebellion,  and  as  the  state  ceded  the  territory 
its  occupants  were  summarily  dispossessed.  Find- 
ing the  ground  taken  from  under  their  feet,  as  it 
were,  with  much  grumbling  there  was  nothing  left 
for  the  unfortunate  inhabitants  but  to  take  up  their 
homes  and  go.  Accordingly  one  fine  day  the  houses 
on  Long  Point  were  loaded  upon  scows  and  all  set 
sail  for  the  mainland,  settling  anew  at  the  western 
end  of  the  town,  near  what  is  called  Gull  Hill.  One 


132     A  LOITERER   IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

of  the  last  buildings  to  go  was  the  school-house, 
built  in  1846  and  serving  sixty  scholars,  raised  on 
the  point,  besides  the  whole  population  on  Sundays 
as  a  meeting  house.  This  edifice  is  proudly  pointed 
out  by  residents  as  a  sturdy  survivor  of  this  expe- 
rience, and,  devoted  to  business,  now  stands  on  the 
shore  side  of  Commercial  Street,  a  few  doors  east 
of  the  railroad  tracks. 

Fishing  and  the  manufacture  of  salt  occupied  the 
adult  population  of  Long  Point.  Sweep  seines 
were  employed  in  catching  mackerel  and  shad,  and 
the  knitting  of  seines  by  hand  provided  work  for 
the  women.  The  ruins  of  two  sand  batteries  put 
up  here  during  the  Civil  War  are  still  visible.  Xow 
the  lighthouse,  and  a  wharf  built  on  the  north  side 
of  the  point  by  John  Atwood,  and  later  used  by 
the  Cape  Cod  Oil  Works,  are  the  only  buildings 
left. 

The  earliest  existing  town  records  begin  with  the 
year  1724;  before  that  date  we  have  only  tradition 
to  depend  upon  for  the  early  history  of  Province- 
town.  Under  the  date  December  7,  1773,  we  find: 
'  Voted  that  any  purson  should  be  found  getting 
cranberys  before  ye  twentyth  of  September  exceed- 
ing one  quart  should  be  liable  to  pay  one  dolei  and 
have  the  berys  taken  away."  Later  it  was  voted,  to 
stimulate  interest  in  the  matter,  "  That  they  who 


THE    PROVINCE    LANDS  133 

shall  find  any  pursons  so  gathering  shall  have 
them  ( '.}  and  the  doler." 

In  1801,  owing  to  the  prevalence  of  smallpox  in 
the  town  it  was  voted  that  "any  person  who  is  head 
of  any  family,  who  shall  permit  to  the  number  of 
six  persons  to  meet  together  at  his  house  for  frol- 
icking or  any  unnescery  purposes  shall  pay  to  the 
use  of  the  town  a  sum  not  exceeding  fifty  dollors." 
The  town  decreed  on  March  5,  1810,  that  "  guese 
should  not  go  at  large  in  the  town  this  year."  The 
very  brevity  of  this  record  seems  to  indicate  the  in- 
tensity of  feeling  that  prompted  the  measure. 

Upon  another  occasion  the  Town  Meeting  met 
to  consider  the  case  of  Hannah  Rider  who  seems  to 
have  been  pathetically  resourceless,  and  voted  ston- 
ily that  "  she  would  not  be  supported  by  the  town." 
A  year  later,  her  tragedy  being  still  on  the  books,  it 
was  "Voted  that  Ebenezear  Rider"  (whose  rela- 
tionship to  the  unfortunate  one  is  not  disclosed) 
"keep  Hannah  Rider  for  45  dolers  this  year,  if  the 
selectmen  cannot  get  anybody  to  keep  her  for  less." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    MAY   FLOWER'S    VOYAGE:    THE 

FOREFATHERS    DISCOVER    THE 

CAPE 

THAT  handsome  exotic,  the  Pilgrim  Memorial 
Monument,  erected  upon  Town  Hill,  in  Province- 
town,  in  1910,  by  citizens  widely  scattered  through 
the  country,  liberally  aided  by  the  national  treas- 
ury and  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  is 
the  culmination  of  a  belated  effort  on  the  part  of 
Provincetown  to  establish  its  priority  as  the  first 
landing  place  of  the  Pilgrims  in  this  country. 

Though  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  John 
Quincy  Adams  and  others  recognized  Cape  Cod 
as  the  original  landing  place  of  the  Forefathers,  it 
was  not  until  the  recovery  of  the  Bradford  Manu- 
script, with  its  complete  history  of  the  voyage  of 
the  May  Flower,  its  chance  arrival  at  Cape  Cod, 
and  the  incidents  that  occupied  the  several  weeks 
during  which  the  vessel  lay  in  this  harbour,  that 
Provincetown  awoke  to  a  full  sense  of  its  own  im- 
portance and  claimed  its  share  of  glory  and  renown. 

134 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     135 

The  monument  commemorates,  in  a  substantial 
form,  which  cannot  be  overlooked,  the  landfall  of 
the  Pilgrims  at  Cape  Cod,  November  11,  1620; 
their  anchorage  in  the  harbour ;  the  adoption  of  the 
Compact  in  the  cabin  of  the  May  Flower  on  the 
day  of  arrival;  the  birth  of  Peregrine  White,  the 
first  white  child  born  in  New  England;  the  death  of 
Dorothy  Bradford,  the  wife  of  the  historian  of 
the  colony,  who  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned 
in  the  harbour;  the  explorations  in  search  of  a 
place  for  permanent  colonization;  and  the  entire 
train  of  events  which  preceded  the  settlement  at 
Plymouth. 

All  these  things  had  been  known,  having  been 
fully  enough  revealed  in  Mourt's  Relations  which 
had  been  first  printed  in  England  in  1622  and  had 
never  been  subject  to  the  romantic  adventures 
which  befell  the  Bradford  history,  lost  to  sight  for 
more  than  a  century,  arid  of  which  we  shall  have 
more  to  say  later.  But  Provincetown  has  always 
been  a  simple  little  place,  with  no  historic  preten- 
sions, while  Plymouth,  having  so  notable  a  past  to 
treasure,  quite  naturally  absorbed  also  the  small 
part  that  was  rightfully  Provincetown's  own  until 
in  the  general  mind  the  events  in  Pilgrim  history, 
even  those  of  great  importance,  which  preceded  the 
official  Landing  upon  the  "Rock"  had  become 


136     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

hopelessly  confounded  and  the  identity  of  the  two 
towns  merged  by  careless  narrators. 

When  the  Bradford  manuscript  came  to  light 
again  in  1856,  after  years  of  oblivion,  it  was  printed 
from  the  manuscript  of  the  document,  secured  from 
London,  within  a  few  w7eeks  of  its  identification,  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society  for  that  year,  and  the  w^hole  Pilgrim  ques- 
tion became  a  live  issue.  Its  revival  at  that  time 
precipitated  the  erection  of  the  first  Forefathers' 
Monument,  at  Plymouth. 

The  surrender  of  the  manuscript  in  1897,  when  it 
was  consigned  by  the  Bishop  of  London  to  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  deposited  in 
the  State  House  in  Boston,  brought  the  subject 
still  more  poignantly  before  the  attention  of  his- 
torians and  descendants  of  the  Plymouth  Colony, 
and  bore  fruit  again  in  the  Provincetown  monu- 
ment. Before  the  question  of  the  final  disposition 
of  the  manuscript  wras  settled  there  was  some  ri- 
valry between  the  two  towns  chiefly  concerned,  both 
anxiously  setting  forth  their  respective  claims  to 
the  honour  of  possessing  the  relic.  "  Had  they  (the 
first  comers)  been  fishermen  or  mariners,  instead  of 
a  pastoral  and  agricultural  people,"  wrote  an  ag- 
grieved Proviricetonian  at  this  time  in  defence  of 
the  priority  of  his  town,  "Plymouth  Rock  would 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     137 

never  have  become  so  celebrated  in  history  nor  so 
often  referred  to  as  the  place  where  the  Pilgrims 
first  landed." 

The  reasons  for  such  a  memorial  then  are  ob- 
vious and  incontrovertible,  and  the  monument  is 
dignified  and  simple  enough  in  itself  not  to  offend, 
as  does  that  ponderous  pile  at  Plymouth,  which 
overdoes  the  symbolic  and  the  literal  on  a  scale 
which  makes  one  turn  with  relief  to  this  slender 
alien  —  this  transplanted  Torre  del  Mangia  of 
Siena  —  than  which,  however,  nothing  really  could 
be  more  unrelated  either  to  the  purpose  which  it 
serves  or  to  its  barren  surroundings. 

A  granite  to\ver  rising  from  a  sand  dune  —  from 
a  desert  where  is  not  to  be  found  one  native  stone 
throughout  its  miles  of  extent  —  it  defies  the  sense 
of  homogeneity!  Furthermore,  why  should  Ameri- 
cans in  the  twentieth  century  hark  back  to  Italy  of 
the  fourteenth  century  for  an  architectural  type 
wherewith  to  express  comemmorative  sentiments 
connected  with  Pilgrim  Englishmen  of  the  seven- 
teenth century? 

'  When  once  you  have  seen  the  Mangia,"  wrote 
Howells,  "  all  other  towrers,  obelisks,  and  columns 
are  tame  and  vulgar  and  earthrooted ;  that  seems 
to  quit  the  ground,  to  be  not  a  monument  but  a 
flight."  So  far  so  good  —  the  type  was  of  the  best, 


138     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  the  plans  for  the  structure  were  made  in  the 
office  of  the  engineers  of  the  United  States  army 
in  Boston,  and  the  construction  was  thoroughly 
and  carefully  supervised  by  that  office,  after  the 
manner  of  government  buildings. 

But  in  adapting  the  type  certain  important  con- 
siderations were  overlooked.  The  original  Torre 
del  Mangia  has  remarkable  distinction  even  in 
Italy,  the  land  of  beautiful  towers,  from  its  ex- 
treme slenderness,  its  great  height,  and  absolute 
plainness  until  it  flowers  out  at  the  summit  with  the 
long  machicolations  of  the  cornice  and  belfry 
stage  above  them.  Attached  to  the  Palazzo  Pub- 
blico  of  Siena,  this  tower  rises  from  a  depression  in 
the  brick-paved  semicircular  court  which  ap- 
proaches it.  Viewed  from  a  distance  it  dominates 
exquisitely  the  ancient  Tuscan  city;  at  hand  it  is 
entertainingly  seen  through  rifts  between  buildings 
where  narrow  streets  converge  from  the  main 
thoroughfare  to  this  civic  centre. 

The  Palazzo  Pubblico  dates  from  1289  to  1309 
and  the  tower  was  added  between  132.5  and  1345, 
and  is  perhaps  the  simplest  and  most  perfect  pro- 
portioned tower  in  Italy.  Its  name,  Torre  del 
Mangia  —  tower  of  the  hector  —  refers  to  the 
bronze  colossus,  formerly  attached  to  the  large 
clock  on  the  face  of  this  tower  which  struck  the 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     139 

hours.  Built  of  brick  and  travertine,  the  latter  a 
porous  light  yellow  rock  of  Italy  —  a  calcareous 
deposit  from  springs  which  hardens  on  exposure  - 
its  materials  are  essentially  indigenous.  The  main 
shaft  is  of  brick  perforated  throughout  with  regu- 
larity which  gives  variety  to  the  surface  and  light- 
ness to  the  structure,  while  the  summit  is  of  the 
light  stone — the  whole  bathed  in  warm  red  and 
orange,  colors  which  harmonize  gloriously  with  the 
setting.  It  is  so  padded,  according  to  the  well 
understood  laws  of  perspective  as  to  appear  per- 
fectly rectilinear,  whereas  the  Provincetown  tower 
has  distinctly  a  waist  —  its  lines  appearing  to  slope 
in  towards  the  middle. 

The  Provincetown  tower  follows  only  approxi- 
mately the  proportions  of  the  Siena  type:  it  is  a  few 
feet  shorter  and  a  little  thicker.  Designed  to  ac- 
company other  buildings  as  part  of  a  synthetic 
group  and  to  occupy  a  low  site  approached  by  a 
sloping  paved  yard,  it  has  in  this  reproduction 
been  detached  from  all  architectural  support  and 
mounted  upon  the  brow  of  a  hill.  Planned  for  exe- 
cution in  light,  native  materials,  it  has  been  repro- 
duced wholly  in  rough  substantial  blocks  of  Maine 
granite,  unrelieved;  and  its  color,  in  a  setting  as 
warm  and  mellow  as  that  of  Italy,  is  cold,  grey,  and 
unrelated.  The  openings  between  the  supporting 


140     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

corbels  of  the  parapet  are  a  relic  of  mediaeval  de- 
fence, having  been  devised  for  the  dropping  of 
stones  upon  assailants,  and  are  the  more  absurd  in 
a  locality  devoid  of  such  primitive  missiles. 

This  is  the  Torre  del  Mangia,  perhaps,  but  robbed 
of  its  heart,  bereft  of  its  soul.  Like  some  choice 
ancient  epic  in  elegant  language  done  into  a  ruder 
modern  tongue,  it  has  lost  all  its  essence  in  the 
translation. 

"  Of  all  monuments  raised  to  the  memory  of 
distinguished  men,"  wrote  Josiah  Quincy,  "the 
most  appropriate  and  the  least  exceptionable  are 
those  whose  foundations  are  laid  in  their  own  works, 
and  which  are  constructed  of  materials  supplied 
and  wrought  by  their  own  labours." 

The  Pilgrims  left  such  a  monument,  and  how- 
ever gloriously  Plymouth  may  have  been  the  in- 
strument of  its  development,  it  was  in  Province- 
town  harbour  that  the  foundations  were  laid,  for 
it  was  here  that  the  Compact,  that  remarkable  doc- 
ument which  was  in  its  way  the  forerunner  of  the 
Constitution,  was  framed  and  signed  by  forty-one 
members  of  the  May  Flower  company.  Baylie  in 
his  History  of  New  Plymouth  thus  refers  to  it: 
'  The  Pilgrims  from  their  notions  of  primitive 
Christianity  the  force  of  circumstances  and  that 
pure  moral  feeling  which  is  the  offspring1  of  true 


THE   SLENUEK   ALIEN ITALY  S    TRANSPLANTED 

TORRE  DEL   MANGIA — AS  A   PILGRIM    MONUMENT 
ON  THE  TIP  END  OF  CAPE  COD. 


THE    PILGRIM     MONUMENT    AT    PROV1NCETOWN 
AS    SEEN    FROM   THE  DUNES. 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     141 

religion,  discovered  a  truth  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment which  had  heen  concealed  for  ages.  On  the 
hleak  shore  of  a  barren  wilderness,  in  the  midst  of 
desolation,  with  the  blasts  of  winter  howling  around 
them,  and  surrounded  with  dangers  in  their  most 
awful  and  appalling  forms  the  pilgrims  of  Leyden 
laid  the  foundations  of  American  Liberty." 

The  Compact  was  a  measure  of  precaution 
framed  and  adopted  to  check  certain  dissensions 
that  had  arisen  within  the  May  Flower  company 
when  they  found  themselves  about  to  land  outside 
the  colony  of  Virginia,  for  which  their  patent  was 
taken.  We  must  remember  that  the  Pilgrims,  after 
twelve  years'  voluntary  exile  in  Holland,  as  an  es- 
cape from  religious  persecution,  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining a  grant  of  land  from  the  London  Company 
for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  colony  in  Virginia. 

'  Virginia  "  in  those  days  was  a  comprehensive 
term  applied  to  a  considerable  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent of  America,  and  of  which  the  state  now 
known  by  that  name  was  but  an  inconspicuous  part. 
At  the  time  of  James  I  the  English  claimed  domin- 
ion over  territory  extending  from  Cape  Fear,  in 
North  Carolina,  to  Halifax,  in  Nova  Scotia.  The 
Atlantic  Ocean  constituted  the  eastern  boundary  — 
westward  its  limits  were  indefinite. 

The  rights  to  the  settlement  of  this  territory  were 


142     A   LO1TEUEU   IX   NEW  EXGLAXI) 

divided  between  two  companies  —  the  Plymouth 
Company  and  the  London  Company.  The  Plym- 
outh Company  controlled  a  tract  extending1  north 
from  about  the  present  locality  of  Xew  York  City 
to  the  present  southern  boundary  of  Canada,  and 
included  the  whole  of  what  Captain  John  Smith  in 
his  famous  map  had  set  apart  as  "  Xew  England." 
The  land  to  the  westward  of  Xew  England,  and  of 
which  little  was  known,  was  broadly  designated  as 
Xorth  Virginia.  '  The  Plymouth  Company  "  was 
composed  of  "  knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants  " 
of  the  west  of  England. 

'  The  London  Company "  was  composed  of 
"  noblemen,  gentlemen,  and  merchants  "  chiefly  of 
London,  and  it  controlled  a  district  extending  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  southward  to  Cape 
Fear,  under  the  general  title  of  South  Virginia. 
Between  these  two  tracts  was  the  country  under 
the  dominion  of  the  Dutch  based  on  the  discoveries 
of  Henry  Hudson,  destined  to  go  ultimately  to 
whichever  company  should  first  plant  a  self-sup- 
porting colony. 

Originally  the  Pilgrims  had  no  intention  of 
settling  in  Xew  England.  As  early  as  the  summer 
of  1617  the  Pilgrim  Society  at  Ley  den  had  de- 
cided to  send  a  detachment  of  its  most  vigorous 
members  to  establish  a  foothold  in  America.  Hoi- 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S    VOYAGE     143 

land  had  offered  the  exiles  perfect  freedom  and 
systematic  legal  toleration  and  protection.  To  the 
number  of  three  hundred  had  they  fled  to  the  Neth- 
erlands from  the  birthplace  of  the  parent  church  at 
Scrooby,  accompanied  by  the  two  spiritual  leaders 
of  the  independent  movement  —  William  Brewster, 
who  organized  the  Separation  in  his  own  drawing- 
room  at  Scrooby  Manor,  and  John  Robinson,  of 
Lincolnshire,  a  man  of  great  learning  and  rare 
sweetness  of  temper,  distinguished,  moreover,  for  a 
breadth  and  tolerance  unusual  in  the  Puritans  of 
that  day.  Of  John  Robinson  Fiske  says:  "we  can 
hardly  be  wrong  in  supposing  that  the  compara- 
tively tolerant  behaviour  of  the  Plymouth  colonists, 
whereby  they  were  contrasted  with  the  settlers  of 
Massachusetts,  was  in  some  measure  due  to  the 
abiding  influence  of  the  teachings  of  this  admirable 
man." 

Robinson  kept  the  flock  together  and  conveyed 
them  to  Leyden  in  1600,  just  as  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment, having  abandoned  the  task  of  conquering 
Holland  had  granted  the  Dutch  the  Twelve  Years' 
Truce.  In  Leyden  their  numbers  grew  from  three 
hundred  to  over  a  thousand,  and  they  supported 
themselves  in  various  ways,  the  leaders  taking  to 
intellectual  pursuits.  Robinson  taught  in  the  Uni- 
versity; Brewster  published  theological  books;  and 


Bradford,  who  was  of  the  original  emigration  from 
Scrooby,  perfected  himself  in  the  study  of  lan- 
guages, especially  Hebrew,  wishing,  as  he  tells  us  in 
his  narrative,  to  "  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  ancient 
oracles  of  God  in  all  their  native  beauty." 

There  were  several  reasons  for  the  Pilgrims'  de- 
sire to  set  up  for  themselves  in  a  new  country  des- 
pite the  security  and  peace  which  they  had  enjoyed 
in  Holland.  They  were,  after  all,  foreigners  in  this 
little  country,  and  the  spirit  of  nationality  was 
strong  within  them ;  complete  toleration  did  not  an- 
swer their  crying  need,  which  was  for  complete  self- 
government  ;  the  expiration  of  the  truce  with  Spain 
might  mean  the  recommencement  of  all  their 
troubles;  but  greatest  of  all  reasons  was  the  dread 
of  absorption  into  a  foreign  nation.  They  had 
come  as  an  organized  community,  and,  says  Fiske, 
"  They  wished  to  preserve  their  English  speech  and 
English  traditions,  keep  up  their  organization,  and 
find  some  favoured  spot  where  they  might  lay  the 
corner-stone  of  a  great  Christian  state." 

Many  sites  for  the  planting  of  this  Pilgrim 
colony  were  considered  and  rejected  for  one  cause 
arid  another:  Guiana,  which  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
had  so  favourably  described,  was  thought  too  tropi- 
cal a  clime  for  northerners  of  thrifty,  industrious 
habits,  as  well  as  dangerously  exposed  to  the  Span- 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     145 

iards;  New  England,  according  to  Smith's  minute 
discoveries  and  descriptions,  was  rejected  as  too 
cold ;  the  country  already  peopled  by  the  colony  of 
Jamestown  presented  difficulties  in  the  matter  of 
religion,  Episcopacy  having  already  taken  root 
there. 

There  remained  available  the  vicinity  of  the 
Delaware  River,  which  offered  opportunities  for 
the  founding  of  an  independent  colony,  and  the 
Pilgrims  were  inclined  to  this  locality,  having  been 
charmed  by  the  narratives  of  the  Dutch  voyages  to 
America. 

The  colonization  of  the  coast  of  this  continent 
had  become  the  avowed  policy  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment. The  Pilgrims  secured  the  favour  of  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  an  influential  member  of  the  Lon- 
don Company,  through  whom  negotiations  were 
begun  and  the  necessary  capital  raised.  The 
enterprise  was  financed  by  seventy  merchant  ad- 
venturers of  England  to  the  amount  of  £7,000,  and 
the  earnings  of  the  settlers  were  to  be  thrown  into 
a  common  stock  until  these  subscribers  should  have 
been  remunerated.  John  Carver,  afterwards  the 
first  governor  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  Robert 
Cushman,  their  "ancient  friend,"  composed  the 
deputation  that  went  to  England  to  put  this  mat- 
ter through;  and  though  the  king  refused  them  a 


Uf>     A   LOITKUKK  IX  XKW  ENGLAND 

charter,  he  promised  to  wink  at  their  heresy  and 
not  to  molest  them  in  their  new  home. 

The  Leyden  congregation  numbered,  at  about 
this  time,  nearly  a  thousand  souls.  Since  it  was  not 
possible  for  all  of  them  to  be  transported  together, 
even  had  it  been  deemed  prudent  to  unseat  the  en- 
tire flock  in  this  hazardous  enterprise,  it  was  de- 
cided to  send  but  a  detachment  of  the  Pilgrims  to 
America  to  make  a  settlement  and  to  pave  the 
way  for  the  removal  of  the  remainder  at  some  later 
time.  John  Robinson  remained  at  Leyden  with  the 
main  body  of  the  congregation,  and,  as  it  happened, 
never  came  to  America;  the  advance  guard,  con- 
stituting "the  youngest  and  the  strongest,"  was  put 
under  the  spiritual  leadership  of  Elder  Brewster, 
who,  together  with  William  Bradford,  John  Car- 
ver, and  Miles  Standish  the  soldier,  took  charge  of 
the  exodus. 

Meanwhile  those  about  to  depart  set  about  the 
burning  of  their  ships  behind  them.  They  sold 
their  estates,  disposed  of  their  household  goods,  and 
converted  all  their  property  into  portable  form 
suitable  to  voyagers  who  set  out  upon  an  unknown 
quest,  and  who  never  expect  to  return. 

The  colony  as  first  organized  represented  a  com- 
munity interest  —  the  terms  of  agreement  dictated 
by  the  "  adventurers,"  as  the  members  of  the  Lon- 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     147 

don  Company  were  styled.  The  services  of  each 
planter  or  emigrant  over  sixteen  years  of  age 
were  rated  at  <£lO,  which  was  counted  as  equivalent 
to  one  share  in  the  colony.  The  anticipated  profits 
to  be  earned  hy  the  colonists  by  "  trade,  trucking, 
working,  fishing,  or  any  other  means  "  were  to  be 
pooled,  and  at  the  end  of  seven  years  the  capital  and 
profits,  namely,  the  houses,  lands,  goods,  and  chat- 
tels, divided  between  the  adventurers  and  the  plant- 
ers, according  to  their  respective  interests. 

This  contract  was  far  from  pleasing  to  the 
planters.  They  particularly  objected  to  dividing 
their  houses  and  lands,  especially  gardens  and  home 
lots,  with  the  adventurers  at  the  end  of  seven  years' 
toil,  and  they  thought,  too,  that  their  entire  time 
should  not  have  been  guaranteed  to  the  community 
interests,  but  that  they  should  have  been  allowed 
two  days  in  the  week  for  themselves,  in  accordance 
with  conditions  first  agreed  upon  by  the  Pilgrims  at 
Leyden.  The  burden  of  responsibility  for  the  as- 
sent to  the  altered  contract  rested  upon  Robert 
Cushmaii  —  Carver  pleaded  absence  at  Southamp- 
ton on  other  business  of  the  planters  at  the  time. 
This  was  the  first  bone  of  contention  amongst  the 
planters  and  the  cause  of  much  trouble  and  dis- 
satisfaction. 

Meanwhile   two   ships,   the   Speedwell   and   the 


148     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

May  Flower  were  secured  and  equipped  for  the 
voyage.  The  smaller  of  these,  the  Speedwell,  a 
burden  of  some  sixty  tons,  was  bought  and  fitted  in 
Holland  and  was  intended  to  convey  the  emigrants 
to  the  English  port,  to  make  the  voyage  to  America, 
and  to  remain  with  the  Pilgrims  in  their  new  home 
for  use  in  fishing  and  other  purposes.  The  May 
Flower,  a  vessel  twice  the  size  of  the  Speedwell, 
was  hired  at  London.  Her  name  does  not  appear 
in  the  Bradford  history,  nor  does  that  of  the  Speed- 
well, but  we  find  the  former  named  in  the  Plym- 
outh records  for  1623  —  it  was  a  common  name 
for  ships  —  and  the  latter  Nathaniel  Morton  men- 
tions in  his  New  England's  Memorial.  The  Speed- 
well sailed  from  Delf shaven,  on  the  Maas,  just  be- 
low Rotterdam,  carrying  the  party  down  to  South- 
ampton, where  the  May  Flower  was  to  join  them. 

Bradford  makes  a  touching  picture  of  the  em- 
barkation at  Delfshaven.  Many  friends  accom- 
panied them  to  the  ship  to  take  final  leave  of  them, 
and  many  came  also  from  Amsterdam,  of  the  other 
Puritan  exiles.  There  was  little  sleep  during  the 
night  that  preceded  the  parting;  it  was  spent  in  en- 
tertainment, Christian  discourse,  and  expressions  of 
affection.  But  the  next  day,  "  the  winde  being  faire, 
they  wente  aborde,  and  their  friends  with  them, 
where  truly  dolfull  was  the  sight  of  that  sade  and 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     149 

mournful!  parting;  to  see  what  sighs  and  sobbs  and 
praires  did  sound  amongst  them,  what  tears  did 
gush  from  every  eye,  and  pithy  speeches  peirst  each 
harte ;  that  sundry  of  the  Dutch  strangers  that  stood 
on  the  key  as  spectators,  could  not  refraine  from 
tears." 

The  voyage  to  Southampton  was  quickly  made 
with  a  "  prosperous  "  wind;  and  here  they  found  the 
bigger  ship  —  the  May  Flower  was  a  vessel  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  tons  —  which  had  come  from 
London,  lying  ready  with  all  the  rest  of  the  com- 
pany. This  was  about  the  second  of  July,  but  it 
was  not  until  September  6  that  the  actual  depar- 
ture from  England  was  made.  There  were  two 
captains  —  Captain  Reinolds  of  the  Speedwell  and 
Captain  Jones  of  the  May  Flower.  After  a  brief 
stop  at  Southampton  the  Pilgrims  set  sail  in  the 
two  ships.  The  Speedwell  sprang  a  leak  and  they 
stopped  at  Dartmouth  for  repairs-  "to  their 
great  charge  and  losse  of  time  and  a  faire  winde.'' 
Being  put  into  condition  both  vessels  again  put  to 
sea  with  all  confidence,  but  when  they  had  put  an 
hundred  leagues  between  themselves  and  Land's 
End,  keeping  all  the  while  within  hailing  distance 
of  one  another,  the  master  of  the  smaller  ship  again 
complained  of  the  feeble  condition  of  his  craft, 
and  it  was  decided  to  put  both  vessels  back  into 


150     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXU 

harbour  at  Plymouth.  There,  though  no  special 
leak  could  be  found,  it  was  decided  to  abandon 
the  smaller  craft  for  general  weakness,  and  to 
condense  the  company  and  provisions  into  the 
capacity  of  the  larger  vessel,  which  was  done  with 
much  delay  and  discouragement. 

Bradford  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  while  there 
was  undoubtedly  some  unseaworthiness  in  the 
Speedwell,  it  seemed  to  proceed  from  being  "over 
masted  and  too  much  pressed  with  sayles " ;  for 
when,  afterwards,  she  was  sold  and  put  into  her 
"  old  trim,"  she  made  many  voyages  and  performed 
her  functions  successfully  and  to  the  profit  of  her 
owners.  The  real  trouble  seems  to  have  lain  with 
the  captain  and  crew,  who,  being  engaged  to  re- 
main a  year  in  America  to  stand  bv  the  colonv,  be- 

»/  »/  »    ' 

came  apprehensive  of  a  shortage  of  provisions  and 
general  discomfort  and  privation.  There  were  not 
wanting  those  amongst  the  passengers  also  who 
were  glad  to  turn  back  from  so  perilous  a  journey, 
and  so  the  leaking  of  the  vessel  was  trumped  up  to 
give  face  to  their  timidity. 

Amongst  those  who  turned  back  with  the  Speed- 
well was  Robert  Cushman  with  his  family.  Cush- 
man  based  his  desire  to  return  upon  ill  health,  but 
it  is  probable  that  the  internal  dissensions  of  the 
colonists  reacted  bitterly  upon  him,  since  it  was  he 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     151 

who  acted  for  them  in  accepting  the  contract  with 
the  London  Company,  so  unsatisfactory  to  them 
that  they  sailed  without  signing  it.  He  came  out, 
however,  the  following  year  in  the  Fortune,  bring- 
ing with  him  his  son,  Thomas,  a  lad  of  fourteen 
years,  who  was  adopted  into  Governor  Bradford's 
family  and  succeeded  Brewster  as  elder  of  the 
Plymouth  Church. 

Xow,  "  all  compacte  togeather  in  one  shipe,"  the 
j\Iai)  Flower  put  to  sea  again,  alone,  on  September 
0,  with  "aboute  a  hundred  sowls."  Bradford  lists 
them  all  carefully  at  the  end  of  his  manuscript  his- 
tory. There  was  one  birth,  that  of  "  Oceanus " 
Hopkins,  in  mid-ocean,  and  William  Butten,  a  serv- 
ant to  Samuel  Fuller,  died  as  they  drew  near  the 
coast,  so  that  the  original  number  of  planters  re- 
mained intact  upon  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  in  Cape 
Cod  Harbour.  One  more  was  born  in  the  harbour 
and  six  died  in  the  month  of  December  before  the 
actual  landing  at  Plymouth.  The  voyage  con- 
sumed over  two  months  and  was  a  terrible  experi- 
ence. The  May  Flower  has  been  estimated  to  have 
been  not  more  than  ninety-seven  and  a  half  feet  in 
length  by  twenty  in  width;  but  whatever  her  pro- 
portions a  vessel  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  tons' 
burden  makes  small  quarters  for  over  an  hundred 
people  —  the  captain  and  crew  are  not  counted  in 


152     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Bradford's  list.  The  passengers  were  not  more 
than  half  strong  men  capable  of  enduring  the  ex- 
posure and  privations  of  such  a  voyage,  but  in- 
cluded many  women  and  young  children.  The 
stock  of  provisions  had  been  cut  down  before  the 
party  left  Southampton,  for  when  the  planters  re- 
fused to  sign  the  contract  the  agent  for  the  adven- 
turers held  back  the  money  upon  which  they  had 
counted  for  their  initial  expenses,  so  that  they  were 
forced  to  sell  some  of  their  provisions  to  finance 
their  departure  from  this  port.  Further  inroads 
upon  their  stock  were  made  during  the  time  lost 
in  the  two  false  starts  that  were  made  with  the 
Speedwell,  before  the  final  getting  away  from 
Plymouth,  England. 

Small  wonder  that  after  a  tempestuous  voyage 
in  the  roughest  time  of  the  year,  under  living  con- 
ditions that  must  have  been  wellnigh  insupport- 
able, that  the  Pilgrims  saw  everything  at  Province- 
town  couleur  de  rose.  They  were  aiming,  we 
should  remember,  for  a  country  farther  south,  but 
lost  their  reckoning  in  the  storms  through  which 
they  passed,  and  "  after  longe  beating  at  sea  they 
fell  with  that  land  which  is  called  Cape  Cod." 

"  After  some  deliberation  had  amongst  them- 
selves," Bradford  writes,  "and  with  the  mr  of  the 
ship,  they  tacked  aboute  and  resolved  to  stande  for 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     153 

the  southward  (the  wind  and  weather  being  faire) 
to  finde  some  place  aboute  Hudsons  river  for  their 
habitation.  But  after  they  had  sailed  that  course 
aboute  halfe  the  day,  they  fell  amongst  deangerous 
shoulds  and  roring  breakers,  and  they  were  so  far 
intangled  ther  with  as  they  conceived  them  selves  in 
great  denger;  and  the  winde  shrinking  upon  them 
withall,  they  resolved  to  bear  up  againe  for  the 
Cape  and  thought  them  selves  hapy  to  gett  out  of 
those  dangers  before  night  overtooke  them,  as  by 
God's  providence  they  did.  And  the  next  day  they 
gott  into  the  Cape-harbor  wher  they  ridd  in  saf- 
tie."  The  place  of  their  "  intanglements "  was 
Champlain's  Cap  Mallebarre,  the  sandy  point  of 
Chatham,  and  that  they  weathered  the  Cape  and 
made  port  without  mishap  is  a  credit  to  the  seaman- 
ship of  their  captain. 

The  great  charm  of  the  Bradford  narrative  is  its 
simplicity.  With  few  words  he  makes  a  perfect 
picture  of  the  condition  of  the  Pilgrim  Company 
after  their  "  tedious  and  dreadfull  "  journey.  Hav- 
ing brought  them  within  safe  harbour,  the  historian 
permits  himself  the  first  break  in  his  story,  the  first 
reflection  upon  the  whole  situation.  "  But  here,"  he 
says,  "I  cannot  but  stay  and  make  a  pause,  and 
stand  half  amased  at  this  poore  peoples  presente 
condition ;  and  so  I  thinke  will  the  reader  too,  when 


154     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

he  well  considers  the  same.  Being  thus  passed  the 
vast  ocean,  and  a  sea  of  troubles  before  in  their 
preparation  (as  may  be  remembred  by  that  which 
wente  before)  they  had  now  no  friends  to  wellcome 
them,  nor  inns  to  entertaine  or  refresh  their  weath- 
erbeaten  bodys,  no  houses  or  much  less  townes  to 
repair  too,  to  seeke  for  succoure ....  And  for  the 
season  it  was  winter,  and  they  that  know  the  winters 
of  that  cuntrie  know  them  to  be  sharp  and  violent, 
and  subject  to  cruell  and  feirce  stormes,  deangerous 
to  travill  to  known  places  much  more  to  serch  an  un- 
known coast.  ...  If  they  looked  behind  them,  ther 
was  the  mighty  ocean  which  they  had  passed,  and 
was  now  as  a  maine  barr  and  goulf  e  to  separate  them 
from  all  the  civill  parts  of  the  world.  If  it  be  said 
they  had  a  ship  to  succour  them,  it  is  trew ;  but  what 
heard  they  daly  from  the  mr  and  his  company?  but 
that  with  speede  they  should  looke  out  a  place  with 
their  shallop,  wher  they  would  be  at  some  near  dis- 
tance ;  for  the  season  was  shuch  as  he  would  not  stir 
from  thence  till  a  safe  harbor  was  discovered  by 
them  wher  they  would  be,  and  he  might  goe  with- 
out danger;  and  that  victells  consumed  apace,  but 
he  must  and  would  keepe  sufficient  for  them 
selves  and  their  returne.  Yea,  it  was  muttered 
by  some,  that  if  they  gott  not  a  place  in  time,  they 
would  turne  them  and  their  goods  ashore  and 
leave  them," 


Mourt's  Relations,  published  in  1622,  in  the 
interests  of  emigration,  gives  a  lighter  picture  of  the 
arrival,  describing  conditions  most  favourable  —  the 
commodious  harbour,  the  wood  and  water  in  abun- 
dance close  to  the  shore,  the  great  store  of  fowl,  the 
whales  playing  hard  by  which  they  lacked  "instru- 
ments "  to  take,  thus  losing  a  fortune.  And  Mourt 
tells  humorously  of  the  great  "  muscles  "  which  they 
found  which  were  fat  and  full  of  sea  pearl,  but 
which  made  poor  eating,  causing  them  "  to  cast  and 
to  secure"  —  he  spares  us  no  details! 

We  come  now  to  the  Compact.  The  patent  which 
the  Pilgrims  had  from  the  London  Company  was 
for  "  Virginia,"  and  they  found  themselves  landing 
in  New  England,  which  belonged  to  another  gov- 
ernment with  which  the  Virginia  Company  had 
nothing  to  do.  Now,  as  we  understand  from  the 
occasional  hints  through  the  Bradford  manuscript, 
the  temper  of  the  Pilgrims  was  not  unmixed  with 
mutiny  and  discontent,  and  so  certain  of  the 
"strangers"  amongst  them  —  by  which  is  meant 
those  who  had  shipped  at  London  and  were  not  of 
the  Leyden  congregation  —  sought  to  take  advan- 
tage of  this  technical  change  in  the  original  plan 
and  to  boast  that  when  they  came  ashore  they  would 
"  use  their  owne  libertie  "  and  that  "  none  had  power 
to  command  them." 


156     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

This  situation  was  promptly  met  by  the  leaders 
of  the  company,  who  drew  up  a  paper  which  con- 
stituted the  foundation  of  their  government  in  this 
place.  There  were  forty-one  signers  to  the  docu- 
ment, each  man  signing  for  his  family  and  servants, 
and  thus  by  mutual  consent,  says  Mourt,  "  they  en- 
tered into  a  solemn  combination  as  a  Body  politick 
to  submit  to  such  government,  and  governors,  Laws 
and  ordinances  as  should  by  a  general  consent  from 
time  to  time  be  made  choice  of  and  affected  unto." 
The  form  of  the  Compact  was  as  follows : 
"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names 
are  under- written,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread 
soveraigne  Lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
of  Great  Britaine,  Franc,  and  Ireland  king,  de- 
fender of  the  faith,  etc.,  haveing  undertaken,  for 
the  glorie  of  God,  and  advancemente  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  honour  of  our  king  and  countrie,  a 
voyage  to  plant  the  first  colonie  in  the  Northerne 
parts  of  Virginia,  doe  by  these  presents  solemnly 
and  mutually  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  one  an- 
other, covenant  and  combine  our  selves  togeather 
into  a  civill  body  politick,  for  our  better  ordering 
and  preservation  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  afore- 
said ;  and  by  vertue  hearof  to  enacte,  constitute,  and 
frame  such  just  and  equall  lawes,  ordinances,  acts, 
constitutions,  and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     157 

be  thought  most  meete  and  convenient  for  the 
generall  good  of  the  Colonie,  unto  which  we  promise 
all  due  submission  and  obedience.  In  witness  wher- 
of  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our  names  at  Cap- 
Codd  the  11  of  November,  in  the  year  of  the  raigne 
of  our  soveraigne  lord,  King  James,  of  England, 
France,  and  Ireland  the  eighteenth,  and  of  Scot- 
land the  fiftie  fourth.  An0  :Dom.  1620." 

John  Carver  had  been  informally  appointed 
governor  of  the  May  Flower  when  she  sailed  from 
England,  so  after  the  signing  of  the  Compact  his 
governorship  was  confirmed  by  the  planters  —  all 
of  which  took  place  in  the  cabin  of  the  May  Flower 
in  the  harbour  of  Cape  Cod,  before  any  landed  at 
Provincetown. 

The  landing  was  a  difficult  business  owing  to  the 
shallow  water.  Their  shallop,  stowed  in  the  hold  of 
the  ship,  was  brought  out,  but  required  consider- 
able mending  before  it  could  be  used;  so  while  the 
carpenters  worked  upon  making  it  fit  those  who 
went  ashore  were  obliged  to  wade  back  and  forth 
from  the  vessel  where  she  lay  at  anchor  three  quar- 
ters of  a  mile  from  the  beach.  The  first  concern  of 
the  women  was  to  do  their  washing,  which  had  ac- 
cumulated sadly  during  the  long  voyage,  and  a 
pond,  where  it  is  supposed  they  must  have  washed, 
from  the  banks  in  the  good  European  fashion,  was 


158     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

located  at  the  foot  of  High  Hill  on  Bradford 
Street  —  the  site  long  since  filled  in  by  the  en- 
croaching sand. 

While  the  shallop  was  under  repair  Captain 
Miles  Standish,  the  military  leader  of  the  Pilgrims, 
with  sixteen  men  armed  with  muskets,  swords,  and 
corslets,  set  out  to  explore  the  Cape  with  the  hope 
of  finding  it  suitable  for  settlement.  William 
Bradford  accompanied  this  expedition,  as  well  as 
the  several  others  that  followed,  so  that  his  history 
presents  the  facts  as  seen  by  an  eyewitness. 

They  explored  the  Cape  as  far  as  the  Pamet 
River,  and  of  their  adventures  Mourt's  Relations 
give  a  livelier  description.  Miles  Standish,  who  is 
here  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  the  Bradford 
history,  was  of  Lancashire,  a  man  of  about  thirty- 
five  years  at  the  time  that  he  joined  forces  with  the 
Pilgrims.  He  had  served  as  a  soldier  in  Holland 
during  her  war  with  Spain,  and  during  the  twelve 
years'  truce  had  found  the  exiles  at  Leyden.  As  a 
practical  soldier  his  methods  were  often  at  variance 
with  the  milder  manners  of  Brewster,  Bradford, 
and  others  of  the  leaders  of  the  colony,  but  they 
depended  upon  him  greatly  to  organize  defence  and 
to  settle  disputes  with  the  Indians,  which  arose 
later. 

One  imagines  him  rather  eager  in  his  use  of  fire- 


"THE  PILGRIMS  ON  THE  MAYFLOWER. 

FROM   THE   DECORATION    IN   THE  BOSTON    STATE   HOUSE 
BY    HENRY    OLIVER    WALKER. 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     1.50 

arms,  taking  almost  a  childish  pleasure  in  the  equip- 
ment of  his  little  battalion  of  sixteen  men  who  set 
forth  to  explore  the  vast  sand  areas  of  Cape  Cod. 
They  had  not  gone  far  until  they  spied  five  or  six 
savages  with  a  dog — but  these  ran  from  them,  and 
throughout  the  several  days  that  were  spent  in  in- 
vestigating the  coast  and  interior  of  the  Cape  they 
never  succeeded  in  meeting  the  natives,  though 
they  saw  frequent  evidence  of  their  whereabouts. 

Bradford  complains  rather  bitterly  that  the  In- 
dians whom  they  met  were  readier  "  to  fill  their  sids 
full  of  arrows  than  otherwise."  But  we  have  seen 
how  simple,  confiding,  and  hospitable  were  the 
natives  whom  Gosnold  and  his  company  encoun- 
tered at  Cape  Cod.  There  was  every  reason  for 
this  change  of  attitude.  From  Smith's  narrative 
we  learn  that  while  himself  and  eight  men  explored 
the  New  England  coast  collecting  material  for  the 
famous  map  and  the  book  of  his  voyage,  Thomas 
Hunt,  the  master  of  one  of  the  ships  of  this  ex- 
pedition, "  dishonestly  and  inhumanely  "  kidnapped 
twenty-four  savages,  confined  them  on  his  ship, 
which  was  laden  with  fish  for  his  employers,  and  set 
sail  for  Spain.  At  Malaga  he  disposed  of  his  cargo 
of  fish  and  on  his  own  account  sold  the  Indians  for 
"rials  of  eight."  This  "vilde  act,"  says  Smith, 
kept  him  ever  after  from  any  more  employment  in 


160     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

these  parts.  This  cruelty  was  fresh  in  the  minds  of 
the  Cape  Cod  Indians,  the  abduction  having  oc- 
curred but  six  years  previous  to  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  their  trust  in  foreign  invaders  was 
destroyed.  Furthermore,  the  tradition  was  pre- 
served amongst  this  tribe,  and  upon  it  was  founded 
the  hatred  of  the  white  man,  a  hatred  justified  by 
every  important  step  in  their  subsequent  inter- 
course. 

The  Pilgrims,  it  is  true,  were  determined  upon  a 
course  of  scrupulous  honesty  in  their  dealings  with 
the  natives,  and  it  is  the  boast  of  their  annotators 
that  the  offensive  and  defensive  alliance,  made 
early  in  the  days  of  their  settlement  between  King 
Massasoit,  the  principal  sachem  of  the  Wampa- 
noags,  and  King  James  was  faithfully  kept  for 
half  a  century.  Yet  was  this  peace  founded  upon 
mutual  fear;  and  there  is  told  a  touching  story  of 
the  mother  of  one  of  the  kidnapped  Indians  trem- 
bling with  terror  at  the  sight  of  the  Pilgrims.  It 
occurred  when  they  went  to  Nauset  to  recover  the 
boy,  John  Billington,  who  had  strayed  from  the 
settlement  at  Plymouth  some  months  after  arrival 
and  who  had  been  taken  care  of  by  the  Cape  Cod 
Indians.  Mourt  thus  describes  it :  "  One  thing  was 
very  grievous  to  us  at  this  place  (Nauset).  There 
was  an  old  woman  whom  we  judged  to  be  no  less 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     161 

than  an  hundred  years  old,  which  came  to  see  us 
because  shee  never  saw  English,  yet  could  not  be- 
hold us  without  breaking  forth  into  great  passion, 
weeping  and  crying  excessively.  We  demanding 
the  reason  of  it  they  told  us  she  had  three  sons  who, 
when  Master  Hunt  was  in  these  pails,  went  aboord 
his  ship  to  trade  with  him,  and  he  carried  them  Cap- 
tives into  Spaine,  which  means  she  was  deprived  of 
the  comfort  of  her  children  in  her  old  age." 

Though  the  intentions  of  the  invaders  were  in 
the  main  good  and  honourable,  according  to  their 
lights,  yet  several  of  their  acts  must  have  been 
otherwise  interpreted  by  the  savages.  For  instance, 
in  their  first  expedition  to  the  Pamet  River  they 
found  buried  under  heaps  of  sand,  "  newly  pad- 
dled "  by  Indian  hands,  several  baskets  filled  with 
corn  of  different  colors  to  which  they  helped  them- 
selves, filling  a  great  kettle  which  they  found  hard 
by,  and  this  they  carried  back  to  the  ship,  feeling 
"  marvelusly  glad  and  their  harts  incouraged." 

The  second  expedition  was  made  to  the  same 
place  in  the  shallop  which  was  now  ready;  it  con- 
sisted of  thirty  men  commanded  by  the  master  of 
the  ship.  They  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pamet 
River,  which  they  called  Cold  Harbour,  landing 
their  men  at  Old  Tom's  Hill,  and  from  thence 
marched  inland  several  miles  to  the  place  where 


162     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

they  had  found  the  corn  and  which  they  named 
Corn-hill.  The  weather  had  changed  since  their 
first  visit  and  they  found  the  place  covered  with 
snow  and  hard  frozen,  so  that  in  order  to  make  a 
systematic  raid  upon  the  Indians'  store  they  were 
obliged  "  to  hew  and  carve  the  ground"  with  their 
cutlasses  and  short  swords  and  then  "  to  wrest  it  up 
with  levers."  This  time  they  secured,  all  told,  about 
ten  bushels  of  corn  and  beans  with  which  thev 

V 

loaded  their  boat,  looking  upon  the  whole  incident 
with  cheerful  egoism  as  "  God's  good  providence," 
and  never  questioning  the  owners'  need  for  the  com- 
ing season's  planting,  but  promising  themselves  to 
make  the  Indians  "  large  satisfaction  "  at  the  first 
opportunity.  They  made  good  their  word  the  fol- 
lowing summer,  as  Bradford  carefully  records  in 
his  narrative. 

Their  most  interesting  and  romantic  discovery 
was  of  a  grave,  unusually  large  and  covered  at  some 
distance  below  the  surface  with  a  board,  finely 
carved  and  painted  with  "three  tines  or  broaches." 
The  idea  understood  by  this  description  is  that 
something  like  a  trident  was  carved  on  the  board 
suggesting  some  nautical  association  with  the  grave. 
The  explorers  did  not  scruple  to  dig  up  and  exam- 
ine the  contents.  Carefully  laid  between  mats  and 
wrapped  in  separate  envelopes  they  found  the  re- 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     163 

mains  of  a  man  and  a  child.  The  bodies  had  been 
embalmed  with  a  great  quantity  of  aromatic  red 
powder,  which  exhaled  a  strong  but  not  offensive 
odor.  The  man's  body  had  been  bound  up  in  a 
sailor's  canvas  "casacke"  (a coarse  frock  or  blouse) 
and  a  pair  of  cloth  breeches.  There  remained  the 
skull  and  bones,  judged  to  be  of  a  European  be- 
cause of  the  fine  light  hair  still  adhering  to  the  skull, 
to  which  was  attached  also  some  unconsumed  flesh. 
The  baby  had  been  laden  with  strings  and  bracelets 
of  fine  white  beads,  and  the  grave  was  filled  with 
"bowls,  trays,  dishes,  and  such  like  trinkets"  —per- 
haps originally  filled  with  food  to  sustain  the  de- 
parted on  his  last  voyage,  according  to  the  primitive 
custom  —  and  beside  each  body  was  a  bow  —  a  big 
one  for  the  man  and  for  the  child  a  little  bow, "  about 
three  quarters  long."  "We  brought  some  of  the 
prettiest  things  away  with  us,  and  covered  the 
corpse  up  again,"  says  the  relation;  and  after  this 
no  more  corn  was  found,  but  only  graves. 

Many  conjectures  were  made  to  account  for  the 
interment,  with  evident  ceremony,  of  a  European. 
But  for  the  blond  hair  some  would  have  thought  it 
the  grave  of  a  sachem ;  others  speculated  that  a  Chris- 
tian of  some  note  must  have  died  amongst  the  In- 
dians and  been  buried  by  them ;  while  later  scholars 
have  surmised  that  this  might  have  been  the  relic  of 


164     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

some  early  Norse  visitor.  About  three  years  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Cape  Cod  a  French 
ship  had  been  cast  away  at  this  place;  the  men  got 
ashore  and  saved  most  of  their  cargo  and  stores. 
The  savages,  however,  seeing  in  these  unfortunate 
castaways  an  opportunity  to  wreak  their  vengeance 
for  the  wrong  that  Hunt  had  done  them  but  re- 
cently, captured  the  Frenchmen,  and  killing  all  but 
three  or  four  —  so  runs  the  story  —  used  the  survi- 
vors "  worse  than  slaves."  We  hear  of  one  who  re- 
mained amongst  them  and  died  in  their  company, 
prophesying  dire  calamity  for  the  tribes  that  had 
persecuted  him  and  his  associates.  It  has  been 
thought  that  this  might  have  been  the  grave  of  this 
Frenchman. 

The  Pilgrim  detachment  thought  well  of  the 
locality  of  the  Pamet  River  and  thought  seriously 
of  recommending  it  for  settlement.  It  presented 
many  advantages,  and  the  matter  of  settling  began 
to  be  pressing  since  the  unseasonable  weather  had 
come,  and  cold  and  wet  lodging  had  "  tainted  "  the 
people,  scarce  any  of  whom  were  free  of  "  vehement 
coughs." 

In  this  very  expedition  they  seem  to  have  en- 
countered the  sudden  transition  from  Indian  sum- 
mer to  full-fledged  winter  for  which  our  climate  is 
famous.  We  read  that  the  spray  lighting  on  their 


coats  froze  instantly  so  that  they  were  incased  in 
ice  as  in  coats  of  mail,  and  that  many  took  "the 
original  of  their  death  here." 

Meanwhile  on  the  May  Flower  things  were 
scarcely  better ;  the  vessel  lay  at  anchor  within  Long 
Point  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  shore, 
and  owing  to  the  flats,  still  characteristic  of  this  har- 
bour, it  was  impossible  for  a  small  boat  to  reach  the 
beach  except  at  high  tide.  Impatience  could  not 
brook  this  impediment,  and  there  was  much  wading 
back  and  forth  through  the  icy  water,  either  for 
pleasure  or  necessity,  which  brought  many  down 
with  colds  and  coughs,  which  afterwards,  says  Brad- 
ford, "  turned  to  scurvey  whereof  many  dyed." 

Weighing  the  advantages  of  the  Pamet  River 
section  against  its  disadvantages,  upon  the  advice 
of  Robert  Coppin,  the  "  pilot "  of  the  May  Flower, 
it  was  decided  to  investigate  farther  within  the  bay 
in  search  of  a  great  navigable  river  and  good  har- 
bour in  its  other  headland. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  expedition  to  prepare  for 
this  third  venture  they  found  that  Mistress  White 
had  been  "brought  to  bed  of  a  sonne,  which  was 
called  Peregrine."  Peregrine  White  enjoyed  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  of  the  English  colonists 
born  in  New  England.  His  father  died  in  the  stress 
of  the  first  winter,  and  in  the  following  May  Ed- 


166     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

ward  Winslow,  whose  wife  also  had  succumbed, 
married  his  widow,  so  that  Peregrine  was  raised  in 
the  Winslow  family.  He  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty- 
three  years  and  died  at  Marshfield,  July  20,  1704, 
of  "  vigorous  and  comely  aspect  to  the  last." 

But  now  trouble  was  to  begin  in  earnest.  While 
the  third  expedition  was  absent  upon  the  discovery 
of  Plymouth,  there  were  four  deaths  on  the  May 
Flower,  including  the  tragic  accident  that  befell 
Dorothy  May,  the  first  wife  of  William  Bradford, 
who  "  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned  "  on  Decem- 
ber 7.  Bradford  himself  in  his  history  does  not 
mention  the  incident.  This  has  been  put  down  to 
characteristic  modesty  and  self-effacement  rather 
than  to  indifference.  Prince  culled  the  simple  fact 
from  Bradford's  Pocket  Book,  to  which  he  had 
access,  and  preserved  it  in  his  New  England 
Chronology. 

Neither  does  Bradford  mention  his  marriage  to 
Alice  Southworth  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Ann,  in 
August,  1623.  She  was  the  widow  of  Edward 
Southworth,  and  tradition  says  that  Bradford  had 
courted  her  as  Alice  Carpenter  before  her  marriage, 
and  the  story  is  supported  by  the  fact  that  he  sent 
out  for  her  soon  after  the  death  of  her  husband, 
asking  her  to  become  his  wife.  But  we  must  not 
exaggerate  the  romance  of  marriage  amongst  the 


THE    MAY    FLOWER'S   VOYAGE     167 

colonials.  The  exigencies  of  a  pioneer  existence 
did  not  admit  of  dreams  —  the  colony  had  to  be 
peopled,  and  marriage  was  a  practical  step  towards 
that  end. 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH 

PLYMOUTH  was  discovered  by  the  third  expedi- 
tion from  the  May  Flower,  which  set  out  on  the 
sixth  of  December,  in  the  shallop,  carrying  ten  of 
the  principal  planters  and  a  number  of  the  ship's 
crew  and  seamen.  The  "  pilot,"  Robert  Coppin, 
was  the  leader  of  the  party,  having  been  here  be- 
fore and  having  some  knowledge  of  the  harbour  of 
Plymouth,  situated  about  twenty-five  miles  distant 
by  an  air  line  from  where  the  May  Flower  lay  at 
the  head  of  Provincetown  Harbour.  Standing  on 
Cole's  Hill,  in  Plymouth,  on  very  clear  nights,  one 
can  make  out  distinctly  the  flash  of  the  Highland 
Light  at  Truro,  over  across  and  beyond  the  bay,  and 
by  daylight,  remembering  the  direction,  it  is  easy 
to  fancy  the  course  by  which,  "circulating  the  bay," 
their  shallop  must  have  come. 

With  Coppin  came  John  Carver,  William  Brad- 
ford, Edward  Winslow,  Miles  Standish,  John 
Howland,  Richard  Warren,  Stephen  Hopkins,  Ed- 
ward Tilly,  John  Tilly,  and  Edward  Doten,  of  the 

168 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     169 

Pilgrim  planters,  John  Allerton  and  Thomas  Eng- 
lish, both  hired  as  seamen  —  the  latter  to  go  as 
master  of  the  shallop,  Bradford  tells  us —  John 
Clark,  the  first  mate  of  the  May  Flower,  the  master 
gunner  of  the  ship,  and  three  seamen. 

Their  first  landing  was  at  Eastham,  where  they 
spent  the  first  night.  In  the  morning  they  divided 
their  company,  some  going  by  land  and  the  re- 
mainder in  the  shallop,  coasting  the  shore,  but  they 
found  no  place  to  their  liking  and,  joining  forces 
again,  spent  the  second  night  in  the  vicinity  of  Brew- 
ster  or  Orleans,  and  this  place  they  called  the  first 
encounter  for  here  they  were  attacked  suddenly  by 
the  Indians  at  daybreak,  as  the  Englishmen  were 
coming  from  the  shallop  to  breakfast,  having  left 
their  arms  upon  the  beach.  Between  Mourt  and 
Bradford  we  get  a  spirited  picture  of  this  en- 
counter. There  was  a  great  and  strange  cry  from 
the  natives,  a  rush  of  an  outpost  with  the  warning 
"Indians!  Indians!"  and  a  shower  of  arrows  fly- 
ing amongst  them.  The  English  flew  to  recover 
their  arms,  gaining  them  unharmed,  two  muskets 
were  discharged  to  delay  the  foe  while  others  of  the 
attacked  ran  out  wearing  coats  of  mail  and,  with 
cutlasses  in  their  hands,  soon  stopped  the  fray. 

The  skirmish  was  short  and  sharp.  What  chiefly 
impressed  the  Pilgrims  seems  to  have  been  the  war 


170     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

whoops  of  the  Indians  which  they  heard  for  the  first 
time.  One  of  their  historians  attempts  to  repro- 
duce the  sound:  "Their  note  was  after  this  man- 
ner," he  says,  "  Woacli,  tvoach,  ha  hack  woach  " ;  but 
a  scholar  seriously  attempting  to  make  something 
intelligible  of  it  finds  no  accord  between  these  words 
and  the  Indian  dialects  of  his  acquaintance!  One 
"  lustie "  man  stood  behind  a  tree  within  half  a 
musket  shot  of  the  party  and  let  his  arrows  fly  at 
them.  He  was  seen  to  shoot  three  arrows  and  stood 
an  equal  number  of  musket  shots,  but  one  "  taking 
full  aime  at  him  "  splintered  the  tree  behind  which 
he  stood,  at  which  "  he  gave  an  extraordinary 
shrike,  and  away  they  wente  all  of  them." 

The  Pilgrims  struck  into  Plymouth  Harbour  at 
night  and  in  the  thick  of  very  foul  weather;  they 
had  broken  their  rudder  and  had  all  they  could  do 
to  steer  with  a  couple  of  oars ;  hoisting  more  sail  in 
an  endeavour  to  make  the  harbour  by  daylight,  they 
had  broken  their  mast  in  three  pieces  and  lost  their 
sail  overboard  in  a  very  "  grown  sea,"  but  by  luck 
and  the  favour  of  the  tide  managed  to  make  an  en- 
trance, though  in  very  bad  order.  The  pilot  seems 
to  have  lost  his  head,  not  recognizing  the  place,  but 
a  young  seaman,  who  steered  the  boat,  with  great 
presence  of  mind  seeing  that  the  mate  would  have 
run  the  boat  ashore  in  a  cove  full  of  breakers,  before 


Copyright,  A.  S.  Bu.rba.nk,  Plymouth, 


KDWARIl  WIN  SLOW.  FROM   AX   OLD  PORTRAIT 
IN    PILGRIM    HALL,    PLYMOUTH. 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     171 

the  wind,  shouted  directions  to  the  oarsmen  to  put 
her  about  and  to  row  lustily  for  their  lives.  So  in 
the  inky  blackness  and  heavy  rain  they  found  land, 
and  stood  the  night  in  the  lee  of  what  proved  next 
morning  to  be  a  small  island. 

The  morning  broke  clear  and  fine  and  the  first 
man  to  step  ashore  was  the  mate,  John  Clark,  and 
the  island  was  called  for  him,  Clark's  Island.  Ow- 
ing to  the  fact  that  Plymouth  is  still  largely  peo- 
pled with  the  descendants  of  the  first  settlers  there 
are  many  interesting  traditions  preserved  in  the 
town.  One  of  these  is  that  Edward  Dotey  or 
Doten  (the  name  is  written  both  ways),  a  young 
man,  was  about  to  leap  first  upon  the  island,  but 
was  restrained  to  give  preference  to  the  mate  of 
the  May  Flower,  that  he  might  have  the  honour  of 
taking  possession  and  naming  the  island.  This 
story,  Thatcher  tells  us,  was  handed  down  through 
the  Doten  family  and  is  well  authenticated. 

The  enclosed  body  of  water  known,  according  to 
location  under  the  several  names  —  Plymouth  Har- 
bour, Plymouth  Bay,  and  Duxbury  Bay  —  pre- 
sents several  interesting  features.  Fully  one  half 
of  it  is  protected  by  the  unusually  curving  main- 
land which  constitutes  its  western  and  northern 
boundary.  From  its  southern  limit,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Eel  River,  a  rapid  tidal  stream  which  forms 


172     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  outlet  of  Great  Pond,  it  is  enclosed  by  a  narrow 
strip  of  beach,  or  tongue  of  land,  formerly  well 
wooded,  which  shoots  out  in  spitlike  form  to  meet 
Saquish,  the  extremity  of  a  still  more  singular  for- 
mation of  land.  Saquish  has  its  origin  in  Duxbury 
Beach,  a  narrow  neck  of  sand  that  projects  at  right 
angles  to  the  mainland  at  the  north  end  of  the  har- 
bour—  called  here  Duxbury  Bay  —  the  whole 
formed  somewhat  like  a  boot,  with  the  heel  forming 
the  Gurnet  and  the  toe,  Saquish.  At  the  Gurnet 
where  stand  the  twin  lights  of  the  government,  the 
peninsula  turns  abruptly  in  the  form  of  a  right 
angle  and  a  thin,  sandy  strip  of  beach  connects  the 
Gurnet  with  the  headland  of  Saquish,  which  points 
directly  towards  Plymouth  town. 

The  theory  is  that  Saquish,  at  the  time  of  the 
Landing,  was  also  an  island,  since  both  the  Pil- 
grims and  Champlain,  who  had  visited  this  spot 
only  a  few  years  earlier,  described  two  fine  islands 
within  the  harbour.  At  all  events,  even  to  this  day 
Saquish  appears  like  an  island,  viewed  from  the 
mainland,  owing  to  its  peculiar  setting,  at  right 
angles  to  the  Gurnet's  "nose."  Within  the  angle 
lies  Clark's  Island. 

The  entrance  to  the  harbour  is  between  Saquish 
and  "  The  Beach  "  as  Plymouth  calls  the  narrow 
strip  that  bounds  the  eastern  rim  of  the  harbour 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     173 

proper.  In  the  middle  of  the  way  lies  Brown's  Is- 
land Shoal,  supposed  also  once  to  have  been  an  is- 
land answering  to  the  descriptions  of  various  early 
navigators. 

The  Pilgrims  landed  on  Clark's  Island  on  a  Sat- 
urday, spent  the  day  there  in  drying  their  clothes 
and  goods  and  cleaning  their  firearms,  and  the  fol- 
lowing day  refrained  from  exploration,  remaining 
quietly  upon  the  island,  secure  from  the  Indians, 
in  celebration  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  following  day,  Monday,  December  11,  or  21 
according  to  the  altered  calendar,  they  set  forth  in 
their  shallop,  sounded  the  harbour,  which  they 
found  fit  for  shipping,  and  made  their  memorable 
Landing  upon  Plymouth  Rock.  They  marched 
into  the  land,  finding  it  uninhabited,  full  of  running 
brooks  of  fresh  water,  and  with  plenty  of  cleared 
ground ;  so  being  in  haste  to  report  to  the  others  the 
good  tidings  of  successful  discovery,  they  set  sail 
without  more  ado  for  Cape  Cod,  bearing  this  time 
across  the  mouth  of  the  great  bay  to  Provincetown, 
a  distance  of  only  about  twenty-five  or  twenty-six 
miles. 

In  four  days'  time  the  May  Flower  had  weighed 
anchor  and  started  on  her  voyage  to  Plymouth,  and 
by  the  sixteenth  of  the  month  she  had  anchored  in 
the  harbour,  just  inside  the  end  of  the  Beach.  For 


174     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

more  than  three  months  now  had  the  little  vessel 
been  the  Pilgrims'  home,  yet  so  brave  are  the  ac- 
counts of  the  historians  that  we  can  only  conj  ecture 
what  their  sufferings  must  have  been.  Disease  and 
death  had  already  begun  to  ravage  the  company, 
that  before  six  months'  time  was  to  be  reduced  to 
half.  Besides  a  seaman  and  a  passenger  who  had 
died  at  sea,  four  deaths  had  occurred  in  Cape  Cod 
Harbour,  and  before  the  end  of  December,  while 
the  company  was  still  constrained  to  make  the  ves- 
sel its  headquarters,  two  more  of  the  company - 
Richard  Bitterige  and  Solomon  Martin  —  suc- 
cumbed in  Plymouth  Harbour,  making  six  deaths 
in  the  one  month. 

The  name,  May  Flower,  has  so  cheery  a  sound, 
so  springlike  a  flavour,  and  the  descendants  of  the 
first  comers  whom  one  meets  in  a  casual  way  and 
far  afield  seem  so  gleefully  boastful  of  their  con- 
nection with  this  fateful  vessel,  that  I  wonder  if 
any  besides  historians  or  specialists  in  the  subject 
realize  the  horrible  pathos  of  these  "  hard  and  diffi- 
culte  beginnings."  Surely  these  were  not  men  to 
found  fashionable  or  chic  society  —  not  men  to  be 
flippantly  or  snobbishly  claimed  as  "  desirable  "  an- 
cestors. Their  social  desirability,  in  the  worldly 
sense,  was  the  least  of  their  qualifications.  Even  as 
pioneers  they  make  but  frail  contrast  to  the  men 


of  brawn  and  muscle  that,  with  more  of  that  true 
spirit  of  adventure,  have  opened  the  West.  Their 
appeal  is  all  on  the  spiritual  plane,  theirs  was  the 
sacred  fire  of  fanaticism  —  that  curious  fact  in 
human  nature  which  leads  certain  types  to  endure 
every  form  of  physical  torture  rather  than  belie 
conscience  or  yield  an  ideal,  rather  than  to  conform 
to  something  in  which  they  do  not  believe. 

These  men,  it  should  be  remembered,  were  not 
typical  Englishmen.  They  were  picked  men  both 
morally  and  intellectually  —  in  a  word  they  were 
men  of  character.  In  common  with  the  Puritans 
who  settled  the  Massachusetts  colony,  most  of 
them  could  read  and  write,  some  of  them  were  men 
of  education,  while  the  mass  of  their  countrymen 
were  wholly  illiterate. 

The  urge  within  them  was  something  far 
stronger  than  themselves.  '  Through  their  early 
days  of  cold  and  hunger,  of  toil  and  discourage- 
ment," says  Cotton  Mather,  "the  Plymouth  Pil- 
grims were  not  merely  striving  to  win  an  inheri- 
tance for  themselves  and  their  children  —  they  were 
laying  the  foundations  of  New  England."  Yet  so 
busy  were  they  about  the  practical  details  of  exis- 
tence during  the  first  years  of  the  colony  that  I 
doubt  if  any  stopped  to  philosophize  upon  the  plat- 
form upon  which  they  stood  —  it  was  a  case  of  in- 


176     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

cessantly  doing  the  thing  at  hand,  of  satisfying  the 
need  of  the  hour. 

The  very  Compact,  upon  which  so  much  stress 
has  been  laid,  as  the  source  and  foundation  of  all 
the  democratic  institutions  of  America,  as  the  basis 
of  our  republic,  was  purely  an  impromptu  measure 
of  expediency,  framed  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a 
moment  unforeseen  when  the  party  sailed  from 
England.  Yet  this  brief,  comprehensive,  and  simple 
instrument  established  a  most  important  principle 
. —  that  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people  shall 
govern.  This  was  bold  doctrine  in  this  age  of  des- 
potism and  superstition.  So  they  crossed  no  bridges 
before  they  came  to  them,  but  met  each  situation  as 
it  arose. 

The  first  encounter  with  the  natives  had  its  great 
effect  upon  the  Pilgrims.  So  impressed  were  they 
by  the  hostility  of  the  Nausets  that  they  were  at 
first  inclined  to  make  their  settlement  upon  Clark's 
Island  in  the  bay,  despite  the  many  inconveniences 
of  an  island  location,  because  of  its  comparative 
security  from  invasion.  The  shores  of  the  Jones 
River,  at  Kingston,  also  attracted  them,  and  they 
spent  some  time  in  weighing  the  various  merits  of 
these  localities  before  deciding  upon  the  superiority 
of  Plymouth  itself. 

Happily   for  them,   in   one   sense,   that  taking 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     177 

possession  of  the  mainland  at  this  spot  was  but  an 
empty  form,  entailing  no  sort  of  conquest.  They 
found  the  country  quite  free  of  Indians,  though 
there  was  every  evidence  of  recent  habitation.  The 
plague  had  cleared  the  way  for  them,  that  terrible 
forerunner  of  the  English  that  swept  the  coast  from 
the  Fresh  Water  River  to  the  Penobscot  with  a 
violence  that  wiped  out  villages,  destroyed  tribes, 
leaving  desolation  in  its  wake. 

The  cleared  corn  fields  at  Plymouth,  ready  to  the 
hands  of  the  English,  spoke  eloquently  of  the  re- 
cent habitation  of  Patuxet  —  the  Indian  name  of 
the  village  so  lately  depopulated.  It  seems  curious 
that  the  colonists  saw  nothing  sinister  in  settling 
upon  a  place  so  recently  visited  by  wholesale  devas- 
tation, but  set  to  work  to  build  upon  the  graves, 
seeing  in  the  circumstance  nothing  of  the  reverse  of 
the  picture,  but  only  God's  providence  to  them- 
selves. 

The  history  of  this  plague  has  yet  to  be  written 
—  certainly  it  was  an  important  factor  in  the  peace- 
able settlement  of  Plymouth  as  well  as  of  Salem 
and  Boston.  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges  relates  that 
the  Indians  near  the  mouth  of  the  Saco,  in  Maine, 
were  sorely  afflicted  with  this  mysterious  malady, 
"  so  that  the  country  was  in  a  manner  left  void  of 
inhabitants."  Christopher  Levett,  who  visited  the 


178     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

northern  coast  of  New  England  in  1623,  found  the 
same  desolation  at  "  Aquamenticus  " ;  and  Thomas 
Dermer,  writing  of  his  discoveries  near  Monhegan, 
in  1619,  speaks  of  finding  along  the  coast  some 
"  antient  Plantations,  not  long  since  populous  now 
utterly  void"  while  in  other  places  remnants  re- 
mained, of  which  many  were  affected  by  the  dis- 
ease by  which  all  the  rest  had  died.  This  pestilence 
swept  New  England  early  in  1617,  slaying  it  is  be- 
lieved more  than  half  the  Indian  population  be- 
tween the  Penobscot  River  and  Narragansett  Bay. 
The  Indians  had  never  seen  its  like  before  and 
with  easy  credulity  were  persuaded  that  the  plague 
was  a  weapon  held  at  the  disposal  of  the  white  man, 
who  had  power  to  let  it  loose  upon  the  savages  in 
revenge  for  wrongs  committed  against  them. 
Shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  pestilence  had 
occurred  the  wreck  of  the  French  vessel  upon  the 
coast  of  Cape  Cod,  referred  to  in  the  last  chapter. 
Of  the  three  survivors  of  the  Indians'  slaughter  of 
the  crew,  all  of  whom  got  ashore,  two  were  re- 
deemed by  Dermer,  as  related  in  his  account  of  his 
voyage,  written  for  Samuel  Purchas.  The  third 
lived  amongst  the  Indians  until  he  learned  their 
language.  He  told  them  that  God  would  punish 
them  for  their  wickedness  and  would  destroy  them 
and  give  their  country  to  another  people.  They 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     179 

laughed  at  his  prophecy,  saying  that  they  were  so 
strong  and  so  numerous  that  they  could  not  be  de- 
stroyed ;  but  after  the  Frenchman's  death  came  the 
plague,  apparently  in  fulfilment  of  his  words,  and 
close  upon  that  the  arrival  of  the  English  to  settle 
their  country,  so  that  they  were  at  last  convinced, 
and  regarded  the  whites  with  suspicious  awe. 

The  Pilgrims  had  the  story  of  the  plague  and 
many  details  of  the  former  settlement  of  Patuxet 
from  Samoset,  an  Indian  from  the  Island  of 
Monhegan,  off  the  coast  of  Maine,  who  walked 
suddenly  into  the  camp  of  the  first  comers  at  Plym- 
outh in  the  month  of  March,  succeeding  their  ar- 
rival, and  startled  them  by  extending  a  welcome 
from  the  savages  in  excellent  English! 

Though  they  had  for  a  long  time  seen  Indians 
skulking  about,  as  they  expressed  it,  Samoset  was 
the  first  with  whom  they  had  intercourse.  Samoset 
is  described  as  a  tall,  straight  man  with  a  confident 
and  friendly  bearing.  He  wore  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  visit  only  a  leather  belt  about  his  waist  from 
which  depended  a  fringe,  "  about  a  span  long  or  a 
little  more." 

Samoset  appears  to  have  been  sent  by  Massasoit, 
grand  sachem  of  the  Wampanoags,  as  an  envoy  to 
test  the  temper  of  the  newcomers,  and  some  of  the 
more  romantic  of  the  historians  would  have  us  be- 


180    A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

lieve  that  the  Indians  decided  upon  a  course  of 
friendship  with  the  whites,  only  after  their  utmost 
endeavours  to  destroy  them  by  curses,  execrations, 
and  conjurations  had  signally  failed.  Bradford 
himself  relates  that  before  they  came  to  the  Eng- 
lish to  make  friends  that  they  had  assembled  "  all 
the  Powachs  of  the  cuntrie,  for  3  days  togeather,  in 
a  horid  and  divellish  maner  to  curse  and  execrate 
them  with  their  conjurations,  which  assembly  and 
service  they  held  in  a  darke  and  dismale  swampe." 

Had  the  English  been  superstitious  they  might 
well  have  traced  their  ill  luck  of  the  first  months  to 
some  antagonistic  influence.  The  rigours  of  the  first 
winter  reduced  the  Plymouth  Colony  to  one-half  the 
number  that  sailed  from  England.  The  year  1621 
was  ushered  in  with  the  death  of  Degory  Priest, 
and  before  January  was  out  eight  had  been  added 
to  the  death  toll,  including  Rose  Standish,  the  wife 
of  the  military  leader  of  the  company.  During  the 
following  month,  when  the  scourge  was  at  its 
height,  two  or  three  sometimes  died  in  a  day.  At 
this  time  there  were  but  six  or  seven  sound  persons 
in  the  whole  community  —  Bradford  was  affected, 
and  the  burden  of  the  nursing  seems  to  have  fallen 
upon  Elder  Brewster  and  Miles  Standish.  These 
"  with  abundance  of  toyle  and  hazard  of  their  owne 
health,  fetched  them  woode,  made  them  fires,  drest 


PILGRIM    MEERSTEADS   ALONG   TOWN   UROOK. 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     181 

them  meat,  made  their  beads,  washed  their  loath- 
some cloathes,  cloathed  and  uncloathed  them;  in  a 
word,  did  all  the  homly  and  necessarie  offices  for 
them  which  dainty  and  quesie  stomacks  cannot  en- 
dure to  hear  named." 

Meanwhile  some  small  progress  had  been  made 
towards  the  building  of  the  town.  The  company 
was  divided  into  nineteen  families  to  simplify  mat- 
ters and  to  reduce  the  number  of  houses  needed. 
The  single  men  were  apportioned  amongst  the 
families.  The  site  of  the  original  town  was  Leyden 
Street,  which  skirts  the  foot  of  Cole's  Hill,  where 
during  that  first  dread  winter,  the  Pilgrims  buried 
their  dead.  The  plan  was  to  build  the  houses  in  two 
rows  for  more  safety,  and,  for  perfect  justice,  lots 
were  in  proportion  to  the  number  included  in  the 
family,  each  person  being  allowed  about  four  hun- 
dred square  feet.  Locations  were  settled  by  draw- 
ing lots. 

The  first  houses  were  built  on  the  south  side  of 
Leyden  Street  where  the  lots  ran  down  to  the  Town 
Brook  and  the  gardens  had  a  sunny  exposure.  An 
unfinished  plan  of  the  street  is  treasured  in  the 
Registry  of  Deeds  amongst  the  old  records  of  the 
colony.  Elder  Brewster's  plot  is  now  occupied  by 
the  Post  Office  and  Custom  House,  and  the  public 
fountain  at  the  corner  of  this  handsome  edifice  is  a 


182    A  LOITERER  IX  XEW  EXGLAXD 

glorified  edition  of  the  original  Pilgrim  Spring  on 
the  Brewster  meerstead,  which  gushes  abundantly 
at  its  source  near  the  bank  of  the  Town  Brook  and 
is  carried  by  electric  power  to  its  present  monu- 
mental setting. 

A  tablet  upon  an  old  house  which  stands  just 
below  the  junction  of  Carver  and  Leyden  Street 
marks  the  site  of  the  Common  House,  the  first 
building  erected  by  the  Pilgrims.  They  started  on 
Christmas  Day  and,  as  it  was  a  rough  log  house 
with  a  thatched  roof,  it  soon  furnished  accommoda- 
tion and  served  as  hospital  to  the  disabled  colony. 
While  many  lay  ill  there  in  January,  the  thatched 
roof  caught  fire  and  was  burned,  adding  further 
misery  to  the  condition  of  the  colonists. 

When  spring  came  the  Pilgrims  bravely  levelled 
off  the  fifty  graves  on  Cole's  Hill  and  planted  corn 
in  order  to  conceal  from  the  Indians  the  depletion 
of  their  colony.  In  some  cases  families  were  sadly 
reduced  by  the  epidemic  which  spread  amongst 
them.  The  famous  Priscilla,  who  later  married 
John  Alden,  was  sole  survivor  of  her  family;  for 
Bradford  records  that  William  Molines,  his  wife, 
son,  and  servant — Robert  Carter — died  in  the  first 
winter.  Governor  Carver  and  his  wife  died  within 
the  year,  and  it  is  supposed  were  buried  on  Cole's 
Hill,  but  no  stone  marked  the  site  of  the  grave. 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     183 

John  Carver  lived  however  to  sign  the  famous 
treaty  with  Massasoit,  the  sachem  of  the  adjoining 
tribe,  whose  messenger  Samoset  was.  Now  Samo- 
set  was  himself  a  sagamore  or  sachem  from  Monhe- 
gan,  in  Maine,  as  we  said,  and  had  learned  English 
from  the  British  fishermen  who  came  yearly  to  his 

V  V 

country,  many  of  whom  he  knew  by  name.  He 
"discoursed  of  the  whole  country,"  informed  the 
Pilgrims  of  the  great  plague  which  had  depopu- 
lated their  present  abiding  place  so  utterly  that  of 
all  the  natives  of  Patuxet  there  was  but  one  survi- 
vor, Squanto  or  Tisquantum,  who  owed  his  escape 
to  Hunt,  having  been  captured  by  that  scoundrel 
with  a  score  of  the  Pokanokets  and  other  of  the 
Nauset  tribe,  and  borne  away  to  England. 

The  Pokanokets  had  once  occupied  all  the  region 
between  the  Narragansetts  and  the  Massachu setts 
and  had  been  sufficiently  powerful  to  hold  their 
own  against  both.  Tradition  says  that  at  one  time 
this  tribe  could  muster  three  thousand  warriors. 

Squanto's  experiences  had  alienated  him  from  his 
kind.  Some  of  the  Indians  whom  Hunt  carried  to 
Malaga  were  seized  by  the  priests  and  converted, 
others  were  sold  into  slavery.  Exactly  what  hap- 
pened to  Squanto  is  not  known,  but  he  was  for  a 
time  a  member  of  the  household  of  John  Slany,  a 
London  merchant  dwelling  in  Cheapside.  Slany 


184     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

was  treasurer  of  the  Newfoundland  plantation, 
where  Squanto  seems  to  have  been  sent,  for  in  1615 
Captain  Dermer,  an  explorer  for  Sir  Ferdinand 
Gorges,  found  him  there.  Dermer  found  the  trav- 
elled Indian  useful  as  a  guide  and  interpreter  and 
retained  him  in  his  employ  for  several  years.  Mean- 
while Squanto  never  ceased  to  extoll  the  virtues  of 
his  native  country  and  in  1619  succeeded  in  per- 
suading Dermer  to  explore  this  region ;  they  set  out 
in  one  of  Gorges'  vessels  bound  for  Maine  and 
coasted  along  the  shore  to  Plymouth.  Squanto, 
after  five  years'  absence,  found  his  birthplace  void 
—  his  friends,  relatives,  and  countrymen  all  dead. 

So,  having  lived  so  long  amongst  Englishmen, 
and  finding  himself  sole  survivor  of  his  tribe, 
Squanto  felt  more  at  home  with  the  settlers  than 
amongst  his  fellows.  Samoset  brought  him  upon 
his  third  visit  to  the  colonists  at  Plymouth,  and 
he  remained  with  them,  serving  as  indispensable 
interpreter  and  guide  for  twenty  months,  until 
his  death,  in  November,  1622,  while  piloting  an 
expedition  to  the  south  coast  of  Cape  Code  in 
search  of  supplies. 

The  two  Indians,  Samoset  and  Squanto,  came  as 
advance  guard  to  the  great  sagamore,  Massasoit, 
who  with  his  brother,  Quadequina,  and  all  their 
men,  numbering  about  sixty  attendants,  waited  at  a 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     185 

discreet  distance.  In  about  an  hour,  so  says  the 
narrative,  these  dignitaries  appeared  at  the  top  of  a 
hill,  and  Edward  Winslow  was  chosen  as  the  Pil- 
grims' emissary  to  parley  with  them.  There  was  an 
amusing  interchange  of  formalities.  Winslow  bore 
gifts  to  the  king  —  a  pair  of  knives,  a  copper  chain 
with  a  jewel  in  it,  and  to  Quadequina  "  a  knife  and 
a  jewel  to  hang  in  his  ear."  The  colonists  also  sent 
a  pot  of  strong  water,  a  good  quantity  of  biscuits, 
and  some  butter  —  all  of  which  were  graciously  ac- 
cepted. The  messenger  made  a  speech  saluting  the 
Indian  chief  in  the  name  of  King  James  with  words 
of  love  and  peace,  accepting  him  as  his  friend  and 
ally. 

Massasoit,  when  the  speech  was  interpreted  to 
him,  expressed  himself  as  much  impressed,  and  leav- 
ing Winslow  in  the  custody  of  Quadequina,  crossed 
the  brook  with  twenty  men.  Captain  Standish  and 
Allerton  met  the  king  at  the  brook  with  half  a 
dozen  musketeers,  saluted  him  and  escorted  him  in 
style  to  one  of  the  houses  then  in  process  of  erec- 
tion, where  the  planters  had  improvised  a  sort  of 
throne  to  which  Governor  Carver  was  conducted 
ceremoniously  with  drum  and  trumpet  and  a  few 
musketeers.  The  governor  kissed  the  hand  of  the 
Indian  chief,  Massasoit  kissed  him,  and  so  they  sat 
them  down  upon  a  green  rug  and  several  cushions, 


186     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

with  what  pomp  their  limited  resources  could  com- 
mand. 

Massasoit  was  described  as  not  differing  greatly 
from  the  others  of  his  tribe,  except  that  his  face  was 
painted  a  "  sad  red "  which  means  a  deep  colour, 
like  the  juice  of  the  mulberry.  This  dark  red  was  a 
princely  colour  amongst  the  Indians.  The  others 
were  variously  painted,  and  adorned  rather  than 
dressed  with  handsome  skins. 

A  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  between  Massa- 
soit, the  chief  of  the  Wampanoags  and  Governor 
Carver  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  which  was  mutually 
respected  for  over  fifty  years.  This  was  April  1, 
1621.  Three  days  later  Governor  Carver  died 
suddenly  of  sunstroke  and  William  Bradford  was 
chosen  his  successor,  the  second  governor  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony. 

Squanto's  coming  to  the  colony  was  providential. 
He  showed  the  first  comers  where  to  take  their  fish, 
how  to  set  their  corn,  served  as  pilot  in  their  expedi- 
tions, acted  as  interpreter  in  their  subsequent  deal- 
ings with  his  countrymen  and  in  a  thousand  ways 
proved  a  useful  and  indispensable  member  of  the 
little  community.  When  he  first  came  amongst 
them  food  was  running  very  short  and  one  of  the 
first  things  recorded  of  him  is  that  he  went  "  at 
noone  to  fish  for  eeles,"  coming  home  at  night  with 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     187 

as  many  as  he  could  lift  with  one  hand.  '  They 
were  fat  and  sweet,"  says  the  narrative,  "  He  trod 
them  out  with  his  feete  and  so  caught  them  with  his 
hands,  without  any  other  instrument." 

The  Indians'  invariable  rule  for  planting  corn 
was  when  the  leaves  of  the  oak  were  the  size  of  a 
mouse's  ear.  They  manured  the  ground  with  the 
alewives  found  in  abundance  in  the  Town  Brook  at 
the  spawning  season  as  they  rushed  to  the  breeding 
grounds  in  the  Billington  Sea.  Their  cooking  was 
very  simple  —  Indian  corn  broken  or  boiled  they 
called  nausamp  or  samp;  nokekike  or  nokake  was 
powdered  dried  corn,  it  formed  their  chief  diet 
when  hunting  and  they  ate  it  quite  simply  prepared 
by  mixing  it  with  a  little  water;  corn  pounded  to 
meal  and  boiled  they  called  hominy,  while  succotash 
was  also  a  dish  of  their  invention,  consisting  of  corn 
and  beans  boiled  together. 

With  the  advance  of  spring  and  the  coming  of 
summer  the  plight  of  the  first  comers  lightened - 
the  Indians  had  been  met  and  dealt  with,  death  had 
taken  its  toll,  crops  were  good  and  the  Pilgrims  be- 
gan to  take  heart.  The  first  marriage  in  the  colony 
was  on  May  12,  when  two  of  the  bereaved  joined 
forces  after  a  brief  period  of  mourning.  These 
were  Edward  Winslow  whose  wife  Elizabeth  had 
died  on  March  24,  and  Susanna  White,  who  had 


188     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

been  left  a  widow  somewhat  earlier.  Theirs  was  a 
civil  marriage,  according  to  the  conscientious  belief 
of  the  Pilgrims,  founded  upon  the  example  of  the 
Low  Countries  in  which  they  had  lived. 

Early  in  April,  with  brave  hearts  the  remnant  of 
the  colony  dismissed  the  May  Flower,  which  had 
stood  by  them  all  this  time  in  the  harbour,  fur- 
nishing constant  shelter.  They  were  without  the 
support  of  a  ship,  which  meant  a  link  with  the  old 
world,  or  any  communication  from  the  land  they 
had  left  until  the  following  November,  when  the 
Fortune  sailed  into  the  harbour  bringing  Robert 
Cushman,  as  an  emissary  from  the  adventurers,  and 
thirty-five  planters,  mostly  young  men,  physically 
fit,  but  wild  fellows  according  to  Bradford,  bent 
upon  adventure  little  considering  "  whither  or 
aboute  what  they  wente,  till  they  came  into  the 
harbore  at  Cap-Codd,  and  ther  saw  nothing  but  a 
naked  and  barren  place,"  when  they  were  much 
concerned  about  the  safety  of  their  own  skins. 

They  brought  nothing  but  their  strength  into  the 
colony  —  neither  food,  bedding,  nor  provisions  of 
any  kind,  so  that  the  colonists  had  much  ado  to 
accommodate  them.  They  did  bring,  however,  a 
hateful  letter  addressed  to  the  late  governor,  John 
Carver,  full  of  complaints  of  the  colony,  especially 
because  the  planters  had  kept  the  May  Flower  so 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     189 

long1  in  the  country,  only  to  send  her  back  without 
a  cargo.  With  this  letter  was  sent  a  charter  or 
patent  from  the  President  and  Council  of  New 
England,  dated  June  1, 1621,  issued  to  John  Pierce 
and  his  associates.  The  patent  which  the  Pilgrims 
brought  over  with  them  from  the  London  Com- 
pany was  surrendered,  but  the  new  charter  is 
preserved  in  Pilgrim  Hall  at  Plymouth. 

The  planters  freighted  the  Fortune  with  clap- 
boards and  beaver  and  otter  skins,  valued  at  about 
£500.  It  was  to  Squanto  again  that  they  owed  the 
furs,  for  Bradford  explains  with  some  spirit  that 
none  of  the  Pilgrims  ever  saw  a  beaver  skin  until 
the  Indian  had  showed  them.  Mr.  Cushman  suc- 
ceeded in  his  mission;  he  delivered  in  the  common 
house  an  address,  usually  referred  to  as  a  sermon, 
to  induce  the  colonists  to  sign  the  contract.  This 
they  did  and  the  emissary  bore  it  away  with  him, 
returning  to  England  in  the  Fortune,  which  sailed 
again  after  but  fourteen  days  at  Plymouth. 

Robert  Cushman  performed  one  valuable  service 
for  literature;  he  carried  with  him  back  to  England 
the  manuscript  of  the  journal  of  the  colonists, 
"  writ,"  as  he  says  in  his  preface  to  the  first  publica- 
tion of  the  manuscript,  "  by  the  several  actors 
themselves,  after  their  plain  and  rude  manner." 

Though  shrouded  in  a  thin  veil  of  anonymity,  so 


190    A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

little  doubt  has  ever  been  felt  as  to  the  identity  of 
the  writers  of  this  delightfully  intimate  diary  of  the 
first  year  of  the  Pilgrim  settlement,  that  it  is  com- 
monly known  under  the  title  of  Bradford  and 
Winslow's  Journal.  These  were  the  only  practised 
writers  amongst  the  colonists.  Cushman  evidently 
carried  it  to  England  on  his  return  trip  in  the  For- 
tune as  part  of  his  answer  to  the  merchant  adven- 
turers as  to  the  good  faith  of  the  colonists,  and 
these,  seeing  in  its  colourful  style  and  romantic 
narration  the  best  of  material  for  inducing  new 
emigrants  to  offer  themselves  to  the  waiting  colony, 
in  whose  success  they  had  so  decided  a  pecuniary 
interest,  simply  took  it  and  published  it  without 
consulting  the  writers. 

It  first  appeared  under  the  title  of  Mourt's  Re- 
lations, in  1622,  and  was  issued  by  John  Bellamie 
at  the  sign  of  the  Two  Greyhounds,  in  Cornhill, 
near  the  Royal  Exchange.  It  was  prefaced  by  a 
letter  signed  R.  G.,  confidently  attributed  to 
Robert  Cushman  —  misprints  were  frequent  in 
those  days  —  and  addressed  to  "his  much  respected 
friend,  Mr.  I.  P.,"  supposed  to  be  John  Pierce  of 
London,  in  whose  name  the  first  patent  of  the 
colony  was  taken.  "  G.  Mourt,"  the  avowed  sponsor, 
is  clearly  a  nom  de  plume,  since  there  is  no  record 
of  such  a  person;  and  George  Morton,  who  came 


ANCIENT   HOME   OF   MAJOR   WILLIAM   BRADFORD   AT   KINGSTON, 
FROM    WHICH    THE   BRADFORD    MANUSCRIPT   WAS   TAKEN. 


HOLMES   HOUSE,   PLYMOUTH. 
OF  THE  OLDEST   HOUSES   IN 
PLYMOUTH. 


ONE 


THE    PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     191 

over  in  the  Ann  in  the  following  year,  seems  the 
likeliest  person  to  have  undertaken  the  publication, 
as  he  was  already  interested  in  the  colony.  Mourt 
would  be  either  an  abbreviation  or  corruption  of 
his  name  or  an  error  due  to  illegible  handwriting. 

So  far  as  it  goes  Mourt 's  Relations,  which  has  the 
freshness  of  a  journal  written  from  day  to  day,  is 
a  more  racy  account  of  Pilgrim  history  than  the 
sober  Bradford  manuscript,  Of  Plimoth  Planta- 
tion, which,  however,  carries  the  annals  from  the 
inception  of  the  colony  down  to  1647. 

The  immense  importance  of  the  Bradford  nar- 
rative as  an  historic  document  is,  however,  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  extraordinary  adventures  of  the 
manuscript  itself,  of  which  all  trace  was  lost  during 
a  period  of  more  than  an  hundred  years. 

This  valuable  record  of  the  early  history  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  written  in  the  neat,  decorative 
hand  of  the  governor,  after  an  adventurous  career, 
of  which  but  few  details  are  known,  is  now  restored 
to  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  treas- 
ured in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  in  the  State 
Capitol,  at  Boston. 

It  is  extraordinary  that  so  important  a  document 
relative  to  the  beginnings  of  a  nation  should  have 
remained  in  manuscript  form  for  more  than  two 
hundred  years.  Bradford  prepared  it  with  the  ut- 


192     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

most  care  and  fidelity  to  fact.  He  began  to  tran- 
scribe it  from  his  notes  about  the  year  1630,  and 
there  is  in  its  make-up  a  consistency  that  seems  to 
argue  that  its  composition  flowed  along  contin- 
uously throughout  the  subsequent  years  until  it 
breaks  off  at  the  end  of  the  year  1646  —  the  work 
was  evidently  left  unfinished.  Bradford  must  fully 
have  realized  its  importance  —  its  deserved  destiny ; 
yet  it  remained  but  a  family  heirloom  until  the 
generation  of  his  great-grandson,  who,  as  the  pen- 
man of  the  family,  inscribed  the  manuscript  in  1705 
with  its  simple  pedigree.  Under  the  date  of  March 
20  of  that  year  Samuel  Bradford  attests  that  it  was 
given  by  the  governor  to  his  son,  Major  William 
Bradford,  and  by  him  to  his  son,  Major  John 
Bradford. 

Later  in  a  different  hand  is  a  memorandum  dated 
June  4,  1728,  stating  how  Thomas  Prince  obtained 
the  manuscript  from  Major  John  Bradford.  At 
this  time  John  Bradford  gave  Prince  several  man- 
uscript octavos  written  in  the  governor's  own  hand. 
The  famous  manuscript  had  been  lent  to  Judge 
Sewall,  and  Prince  was  directed  to  get  it  from  him 
and  to  use  what  he  wished  for  his  New  England 
Chronology,  after  which  he  was  authorized  by  John 
Bradford  to  deposit  the  history  in  the  New  Eng- 
land Library  of  Prints  and  Manuscripts,  which 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     193 

Prince  had  been  collecting  for  a  number  of  years, 
asking  only  that  he  (Bradford)  "might  have  ye 
perusal  of  it  while  he  lived." 

Nathaniel  Morton  had  had  access  to  the  manu- 
script using  it  freely  in  the  preparation  of  his  New 
England's  Memorial,  published  in  Cambridge,  in 
1669  —  in  a  preface  addressed  to  "  Thomas  Prence," 
the  governor  of  the  colony  at  this  time,  the  author 
freely  confesses  to  have  "  borrowed  much  "  from  his 
uncle,  "Mr.  William  Bradford,  and  such  manu- 
scripts as  he  left  in  his  study."  Prince  and  Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson  had  both  quoted  the  manuscript 
as  authority  for  some  of  their  writings  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Pilgrim  settlement  and  history,  so  that 
it  was  well  known  to  all  students  of  our  early  an- 
nals that  such  a  manuscript  had  existed. 

Prince  kept  the  choicest  treasures  of  the  New 
England  Library,  which  he  was  collecting,  in  the 
tower  of  the  Old  South  Church,  in  Boston,  and  it 
was  here  that  the  precious  manuscript  was  sup- 
posed to  have  lodged  during  the  siege  of  Boston, 
when,  as  is  well  known,  the  British  soldiers  used 
that  church  as  a  riding  school.  Amongst  the  con- 
tents of  the  library  missing  from  the  tower  after  the 
evacuation  of  the  British  was  Governor  Bradford's 
Letter  Book.  This  was  carried  to  Nova  Scotia  and 
turned  up  some  years  later  in  a  grocery  shop  in 


194     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Halifax,  where  its  leaves  were  being  used  as 
wrapping  paper.  John  Clark,  a  corresponding 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
rescued  the  relic  at  page  339  of  its  dispersion,  and 
the  fragment—  "the  preceding  pages  wanting" 
was  published  in  1810. 

It  was  supposed  that  the  Bradford  manuscript 
had  shared  the  fate  of  the  Letter  Book  and  of  other 
documents  totally  destroyed,  and  all  hope  of  its 
recovery  had  been  abandoned  —  when  suddenly,  in 
1855  a  scholar  delving  into  the  history  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  church  in  America,  stumbled  up- 
on a  quotation  taken  from  a  "Manuscript  History 
of  the  Plantation  of  Plymouth  etc.,  in  the  Fulham 
Library."  Fortunately  the  scholar,  the  Rev.  John 
S.  Barry,  was  well  versed  in  Americana.  He  recog- 
nized at  once  the  language  of  Bradford  as  cited  by 
Morton  and  Prince,  and  there  were  other  passages 
not  recognized  as  having  been  previously  quoted. 

Upon  the  delicious  scent  of  an  important  dis- 
covery, Mr.  Barry  immediately  carried  his  tale  to 
Charles  Deane  of  Cambridge,  a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  who  lost  no  time 
in  writing  to  London  to  have  the  manuscript  in  the 
Fulham  Library  inspected.  It  turned  out  to  be  the 
veritable  Bradford  history  —  Of  Plimoth  Planta- 
tion. A  very  charming  correspondence  between 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH     195 

scholars  and  antiquarians  followed,  which  led  to 
the  forwarding  of  an  exact  copy  of  the  manuscript, 
made  by  authority  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  The 
relic  was  first  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  for  1856. 

Massachusetts  then  became  anxious  to  recover  the 
document  itself,  a  desire  that  was  gratified,  in  1897, 
by  its  restoration  to  the  city  from  which  it  had  mys- 
teriously disappeared.  How  the  manuscript  reached 
the  library  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  at  Fulham,  is 
a  mystery  that  has  never  been  solved;  how  long  it 
had  remained  there  before  its  accidental  discovery 
and  identification,  nobodv  knows. 


CHAPTER  IX 
MODERN  PLYMOUTH 

PLYMOUTH  quite  wonderfully  holds  its  own,  as 
a  modern  town,  against  the  weight  of  historic  heri- 
tage, beneath  which  one  had  expected  to  find  it 
fairly  crushed.  So  far  is  this  from  the  case  that  we 
find  the  new  Plymouth  rising  from  the  disintegra- 
tion of  the  old  with  almost  too  complete  disregard  of 
memorable  past  —  of  its  vital  place  in  the  annals  of 
New  England  —  its  significance  as  the  cradle  of 
the  republic. 

So  completely  has  Plymouth  obliterated  its 
touching  past  that  no  convincing  landmark  re- 
mains to  establish,  for  an  effort  at  mental  rehabil- 
itation, a  definite  and  indisputable  point  of  orienta- 
tion. There  is,  to  be  sure,  the  exquisite  lay  of  the 
land  —  the  town  upon  three  levels  —  with  its  sempi- 
ternal relation  to  the  harbour  and  the  features  com- 
passed therein.  But  while  the  structural  fabric 
remains,  things  in  Plymouth  have  been  too  tidily  set 
to  rights  to  retain,  still  less  to  exhale,  the  essential 
perfume  of  the  past,  by  whose  aio!  we  might  invoke 

196 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  197 

the  vision  of  the  May  Flower  entering  the  fair 
prospect  which  the  Plymouth  hills  command,  of  the 
Landing  from  the  shallop  upon  the  famous  lone 
boulder,  of  the  rude  village  of  the  first  settlers,  or 
of  the  Forefathers  themselves,  whose  footsteps, 
long  since  hushed  in  forgotten  graves,  trod  so  val- 
iantly these  shores ;  whose  courage,  convictions,  and 
hopes  made  the  foundation  of  the  nation;  whose 
seed  has  penetrated  to  the  remotest  parts  of  our 
territorial  possessions. 

Like  the  sober,  practical  child  of  divinely  gifted 
parents  the  new  Plymouth  has  sought  to  make  a 
life  for  itself  rather  than  to  sink  into  the  unhealthy 
state  of  a  mere  show  place.  The  original  town,  of 
which  every  trace  has  been  wiped  out,  \vas  scarcely 
more  than  an  incubator  for  a  colony  whose  instincts 
were  from  the  first  migratory.  The  Pilgrims  who 
settled  Plymouth  had  lived  twelve  years  in  Hol- 
land; scarcely  had  they  acquired  foothold  in  Amer- 
ica before  they  began  to  extend  their  individual 
possessions  through  Plymouth,  Kingston,  Dux- 
bury,  and  Marshfield.  After  seventy-two  years  of 
existence  as  a  concrete  body,  the  Plymouth  Colony 
was  absorbed  by  that  of  Massachusetts  Bay  —  the 
incubator  had  done  its  work,  a  prolific  colony  was 
ready  to  disseminate  itself  throughout  the  land. 
That  pioneer  instinct  which,  however  it  may  be 


198     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

interpreted,  was  the  fundamental  factor  in  this 
flight  of  the  Forefathers  from  England  into  Hol- 
land, in  their  exodus  from  Holland  and  their  entry 
into  Plymouth,  now  urged  them  to  push  forward 
through  New  England  and  later  throughout  the  en- 
tire country,  colonizing  even  in  the  far  West. 

At  the  time  of  the  union  of  the  two  colonies,  1692, 
the  population  of  Plymouth  was  about  seventy-five 
hundred.  In  the  two  and  a  quarter  centuries  that 
have  elapsed  since  this  event  that  number  has  been 
about  doubled.  Meanwhile  the  natural  resources 
of  the  township,  scarcely  touched  by  the  first  set- 
tlers, have  been  largely  utilized;  the  water  power 
has  been  harnessed  to  a  certain  extent,  and  a  great 
diversity  of  manufacturing  enterprises  are  in  pros- 
perous operation. 

The  Forefathers,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  old  rec- 
ords, had  only  to  bale  the  alewives  and  herring  out 
of  the  Town  Brook  as  they  passed  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  in  multitudes  to  spawn  in  the  Billington 
Sea,  taking  them  "  with  great  ease "  at  their 
"  doores."  Fish  were  so  abundant  that  an  old 
writer  informs  us  the  inhabitants  used  to  "  doung 
their  ground  with  them."  This  was  a  trick  learned 
from  the  Indians,  whose  method  of  fertilizing  the 
soil  was  to  plant  two  herrings  with  each  kernel  of 
corn  set  out  in  the  spring.  "  You  may  see  one  hun- 


THE  CLAM   DIGGER   . 
FROM   AN    ETCHING  BY   FRANK    W.    BENSON. 


MODERN   PLYMOUTH  199 

dred  acres  together  set  with  these  fish,  every  acre 
taking  a  thousand  of  them,"  writes  Thomas  Mor- 
ton, in  his  New  English  Canaan,  and  he  assures  us 
that  a  field  so  fertilized  will  yield  three  times  the 
usual  crop.  Of  bass  also  he  writes:  "  I  my  selfe, 
at  the  turning  of  the  tide,  haue  seen  such  multitudes 
passe  out  of  a  pound  that  it  seemed  to  mee  that  we 
might  goe  over  their  backs  drishod." 

The  prolificness  of  the  Town  Brook  has  always 
been  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  citizens  of  Plym- 
outh. Formerly  every  widow  of  the  town  was 
allowed  so  many  fish  per  annum,  and  later  those 
who  did  not  want  the  fish  were  given  a  small  sum 
of  money  in  lieu  of  their  so-called  "  herring  rights." 
The  fishing  privilege  of  the  Town  Brook  is  now  sold 
at  auction  each  year,  bringing  to  the  town  a  revenue 
of  from  $6  to  $125  annually.  Alewives,  commonly 
but  erroneously  called  herrings  —  a  species  of 
small  shad  —  still  form  an  important  part  of  the 
yearly  catch  off  the  New  England  coast. 

Fishing,  then,  furnished  the  obvious  industry  for 
the  first  comers,  alternating  with  the  land  pursuits 
provided  by  the  grist  mills,  coopers'  shops,  domestic 
looms,  and  fulling  mills,  together  with,  of  course, 
agriculture,  the  land  being  particularly  rich  and 
fruitful. 

Plymouth  vessels  once  traded  all  over  the  world. 


200     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Whale  fishing,  at  first  conducted  from  the  coast, 
hegan  as  early  as  1690,  at  which  time  as  we  know, 
whales  were  abundant  along  these  shores  within 
sight  of  land;  but  in  1821  and  1822  companies  were 
formed  and  vessels  built  for  more  extended  voyages 
to  the  remoter  habitat  of  the  whale,  and  for  a  few 
years  Plymouth  competed  successfully  with  the 
more  important  ports  in  this  adventurous  com- 
merce. 

Within  the  memory  of  people  still  living  Plymouth 
boasted  a  fleet  of  seventy-five  schooners  engaged  in 
the  fisheries,  where  to-day  not  one  vessel  is  owned  in 
the  town.  Residents  point  out  the  location  of  the 
flake  rights  along  the  harbour,  now  often  converted 
into  lawns  and  gardens,  where  their  fathers  dried 
the  fish  brought  in  daily  from  near-by  waters;  and 
this  commodity  formed  the  basis  of  a  coastwise  and 
gradually  increasing  foreign  trade  which  sprung 
up  in  its  wake. 

The  decline  of  Plymouth's  prestige  as  a  fishing 
port  has  been  succeeded  by  the  rising  importance 
of  her  manufactures,  of  which  those  of  the  great 
cordage  works  at  North  Plymouth,  the  largest 
plant  of  its  kind,  take  precedence  over  the  other 
products  of  the  township.  Owing  to  the  large  im- 
portations of  raw  material  from  Yucatan  and 
Manila,  used  by  the  Cordage  Company,  Plymouth 


201 

now  stands  next  to  Boston  in  regard  to  foreign  im- 
ports in  the  state.  About  two  thousand  workers  are 
employed  by  this  company,  forming  a  fair-sized 
corporation  village  at  Seaside. 

Of  the  natural  resources  of  the  township  the  cul- 
tivation of  cranberries  on  an  extensive  scale  takes 
the  lead.  It  is  said  that  together  with  the  adjoin- 
ing town  of  Carver,  the  two  produce  more  than 
one  fourth  of  the  cranberries  grown  in  the  United 
States.  Plymouth's  individual  output  is  estimated 
at  about  three  hundred  thousand  barrels  annually. 

The  large  area  of  sand  flats  in  the  harbour  has 
been  granted  by  the  town  for  the  propagation  of 
clams,  successfully  operated  and  furnishing  em- 
ployment to  about  fifty  persons.  Brook  trout  and 
spawn  for  the  market  are  also  raised  in  quantities 
here,  forming  a  flourishing  enterprise. 

Territorially  Plymouth  is  the  largest  town  in 
Massachusetts,  extending  about  twenty  miles  along 
a  richly  varied  coast,  from  Kingston  to  Manomet, 
with  a  width  of  from  five  to  ten  miles  inland.  About 
four  fifths  of  its  acreage  is  forest,  composed  chiefly 
of  oaks  and  pines,  and  a  remarkable  feature  of  the 
township  is  its  fresh-water  ponds,  of  which  the  citi- 
zens love  to  boast  that  there  is  one  for  every  day  in 
the  year. 

Billington  Sea,  the  source  of  the  Town  Brook, 


202     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

is  one  of  the  greatest  of  these,  and  was  named  for 
its  discoverer,  the  notorious  John  Billington,  the 
scapegrace  of  the  May  Flower  company,  who  was 
afterwards  hanged  by  the  first  comers  for  wilful 
murder.  Billington,  the  records  are  careful  to  in- 
form us,  was  not  of  the  Leyden  congregation,  but 
was  a  Londoner,  admitted  to  the  company  with  his 
wife  and  two  sons  in  England.  Not  all  of  the  May 
Flower's  passengers  it  will  be  remembered,  came  to 
escape  religious  persecution,  a  few  were  pure  emi- 
grants, others  were  hired  as  useful  adjuncts  to  the 
colony.  John  Alden,  for  instance,  was  engaged  as 
a  cooper  at  Southhampton,  where  the  ship  "vic- 
tuled";  and  says  Bradford:  "being  a  hopfull  yong 
man,  was  much  desired,  but  left  to  his  owne  liking 
to  go  or  stay  when  he  came  here." 

The  lands  of  Plymouth  rise  at  the  broad  north- 
eastern projection  into  the  long  wooded  eminence 
of  Manomet  Point,  about  four  hundred  feet  above 
the  sea  level,  a  truly  wild  expanse  along  whose 
ridge,  close  by  the  bay  wanders  an  Indian  trail,  still 
used  by  the  life  savers  in  their  coast  patrol.  The 
outlook  from  these  bluffs  is  one  of  the  finest  and 
most  expansive  on  the  coast,  commanding  nearly 
the  entire  outline  of  Cape  Cod,  from  Sandwich  to 
Provincetown,  as  it  sweeps  round  the  enclosing  bay. 

Some  writer  has  said  that  the  true  romance  of 


BURIAL    HILL,   PLYMOUTH, 

SHOWING   THE   CHURCH    OF    THE    PILGRIMAGE. 

PHOTOGRAPH   BY    HELEN    MESSINGER   MURDOCH. 


THE   BRADFORD    MONUMENT, 
BURIAL    HILL,   PLYMOUTH. 


MODERN   PLYMOUTH  203 

Plymouth  rests  upon  her  Burial  Hill  —  that  her 
history  is  written  here.  It  is  true  that  from  this 
dreamy  eminence  one  could  bridge  the  modern 
town  below,  obliterated  by  its  sumptuous  spreading 
trees.  The  shabby,  crumbling  headstones  in  the 
rambling  graveyard  fill  us  with  romance,  recon- 
struct for  us  the  intimate  life  of  the  past  —  the 
sufferings  of  the  colonists,  their  courage,  their  de- 
votion, their  faith,  bringing  tears  of  sympathy  and 
kinship  to  our  eyes.  One  feels  akin  to  these  dear 
graves  with  their  quaint  revealing  epitaphs,  their 
naive  carvings,  their  artless  orthography.  From 
their  contemplation  the  eye  spans  to  the  unchanged 
harbour.  All  the  essential  facts  are  there,  just  as 
when,  three  hundred  years  ago,  the  shallop 
stumbled  within  in  the  teeth  of  a  heavy  gale. 

Under  the  low  hanging  linden  trees  on  the  brow 
of  the  hill,  planted  frankly  upon  the  ancestral 
stones,  are  comfortable  benches  for  leisurely  con- 
templation of  the  exquisite  view  of  the  harbour.  Out 
of  the  luxuriant  depths  of  surrounding  leafage 
rises  as  reminder  of  the  three  centuries'  lapse,  only 
the  pretty  belfry  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrimage, 
its  copper-green  cap  giving  the  note  to  the  colour 
scheme  of  an  enchanting  prospect. 

To  the  right  three  hundred  years  ago  lay  the 
Watch  Tower;  farther  back,  near  the  Cushman 


204     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

Monument,  the  fort,  from  which  the  hill  took  its 
original  name  —  Fort  Hill.  The  fort  was  a  large 
square  house  with  a  fiat  roof,  made  of  thick  planks, 
stayed  with  oak  beams;  on  the  top  six  cannons 
charged  with  four  or  five-pound  iron  balls,  com- 
manding the  surrounding  country;  below  in  the 
same  structure  was  the  church. 

An  old  letter  describes  churchgoing  in  Plymouth 
three  centuries  ago:  "They  assemble  by  beat  of 
drum  each  with  his  musket  or  firelock  in  front  of 
the  captain's  door;  they  have  their  cloaks  on,  and 
place  themselves  in  order,  three  abreast  and  are  led 
by  a  sergeant  without  beat  of  drum.  Behind  comes 
the  governor  in  a  long  robe;  beside  him,  on  the  right 
hand,  comes  the  preacher  with  his  cloak  on,  and  on 
the  left  hand,  the  captain  with  his  side  arms  and 
cloak  on,  and  with  a  small  cane  in  his  hand ;  and  so 
they  march  in  good  order  and  each  sets  his  arms 
down  near  him.  Thus  they  are  constantly  on  their 
guard,  night  and  day." 

Filled  with  graves  there  is  not  the  least  mortuary 
suggestion  about  Burial  Hill — it  is  rather  the 
sweetest  place  in  Plymouth,  partly  from  its  lovely 
dominance  of  the  to\vn  and  the  harbour,  partly 
from  the  traditional  informality  of  its  treatment. 
From  time  to  time  there  have  been  attempts  to  cur- 
tail privileges  always  enjoyed  here,  and  in  effect  as 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  205 

a  pasturage  for  cattle  it  is  no  longer  available!  As 
late  as  1770  indeed  the  hill  was  not  even  fenced;  as 
stones  gave  out  or  stood  in  the  way  of  new  paths 
they  were  unceremoniously  removed  to  a  rubbish 
heap,  from  which  stone  masons  and  citizens  helped 
themselves  as  convenience  required,  and  the  sacred 
relics  returned  at  last  to  such  base  uses  as  coverings 
for  drains  and  cesspools,  some  of  which  may  still 
be  seen  about  the  town. 

Extraordinary  irreverance  has  not  resulted  in 
desecration  actually  to  the  hill  itself,  only  in  main- 
taining a  sense  of  intimacy  between  the  living  de- 
scendants —  of  which  the  town  is  amazingly  full  - 
and  the  buried  ancestors.  This  is  the  friendliest 
graveyard  in  all  New  England.  Straight  away 
across  its  summit  lie  the  short  cuts  between  differ- 
ent distant  sections  of  the  town,  constantly  tracked 
by  scurrying  figures,  advancing,  meeting,  disap- 
pearing in  all  directions. 

On  all  sides  the  hand-carved  gravestones,  their 
universal  slatiness  mitigated  by  enlarging  circles  of 
tender  grey,  green,  and  yellow  lichen,  stand  up  in 
picturesque  confusion  on  the  grassy  slopes.  "Folks 
was  buried  kinda  haphazard  up  here  in  those  days," 
the  custodian  told  me  with  a  delicious  clip  of  his 
words, "  —they  ain't  no  sys-tem."  It  was  the  family 
burying  ground  for  the  survivors  of  the  first  winter. 


206     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  with  the  idea  of  an  universal  brotherhood  there 
was  in  the  planting  not  too  much  insistence  upon 
strict  family  ties.  Most  of  the  old  names  appear  in 
profusion,  but  scattered  throughout  the  reservation. 
Bradfords  are  sown  broadcast  through  the  grave- 
yard, many  clustered  about  the  obelisk  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  governor,  which  approximates  his  pos- 
sible burial  place. 

But  the  friendly  custodian  is  a  well  informed 
person,  always  ready  to  abandon  his  light  duties  — 
they  have  the  superficiality  of  stage  gardening  — 
and  point  out  the  celebrated  graves.  May  Flower 
names  abound,  yet  one  searches  in  vain  for  graves 
of  any  of  the  original  settlers.  Of  all  the  colonists 
that  came  on  the  first  four  ships  —  the  May  Flower, 
the  Fortune,  the  Ann,  or  the  Little  James  —  but 
two  rest  here  in  identified  graves;  these  were 
Thomas  Cushman  of  the  Fortune,  and  Thomas 
Clark  of  the  Ann.  The  handsome  stone  in  purple 
Welsh  slate,  which  marks  the  grave  of  Thomas 
Clark,  who  died  in  1697,  in  the  ninety-eighth  year 
of  his  age,  is  in  excellent  preservation;  that  which 
records  the  resting  place  of  Thomas  Cushman  has 
only  recently  been  restored  to  the  proximity  of  his 
grave.  The  great  granite  shaft  to  the  memory  of 
the  Cushman  family  is  of  course  a  modern  struc- 
ture. When  it  was  erected  in  1858,  the  descendants 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  207 

of  Elder  Cushman  removed  the  ancient  stone  to 
make  room  for  the  more  pretentious  memorial. 

Sometimes  old,  disintegrating  stones  have  been 
imbedded  in  granite  to  protect  and  preserve  the 
fragments,  while  a  very  great  many  wear  protecting 
rims  of  metal.  The  oldest  stones  —  some  half 
dozen,  placed  towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  —  have  thus  been  deprived  of  their  con- 
vincing aspect  of  antiquity. 

The  oldest  stone  is  dated  1681,  and  marks  the 
grave  of  Edward  Gray,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  the 
colony ;  it  is  of  native  blue  slate,  rudely  cut ;  both  it 
and  the  headstone  to  the  grave  of  William  Crowe, 
who  "deceased"  in  January  1683-1684,  have  been 
recut  and  mounted  in  granite  frames.  Most  of  the 
stones  up  to  the  year  1745  were  brought  over  from 
England,  which  has  been  supposed  partly  to  ac- 
count for  the  absence  of  earlier  memorials.  A  more 
reasonable  theory,  however,  is  that  the  first  colonists 
were  buried  on  their  own  lands  in  private  grave- 
yards, and  that  as  little  value  was  attached  to  such 
relics  until  about  half  a  century  ago,  such  stones 
as  were  placed  disintegrated  and  were  ploughed 
under  the  soil  in  the  course  of  time. 

History  and  tradition  on  this  subject  are  confus- 
ing in  Plymouth;  it  is  not  definitely  known  where 
were  buried  Bradford,  Brewster,  Carver,  Stephen 


208     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Hopkins,  Samuel  Fuller,  Francis  Eaton,  Peter 
Brown,  and  others  who  died  in  Plymouth  before 
1681,  the  date  of  the  earliest  known  grave  on  Bur- 
ial Hill.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Major  William 
Bradford,  who  died  in  1704  and  whose  grave  is 
known,  asked  to  be  buried  near  his  father,  the 
governor,  and  it  is  upon  the  strength  of  this  tradi- 
tion that  the  marble  obelisk  was  placed,  in  1825,  on 
the  summit  of  the  hill,  from  which  the  view  is  most 
enchanting.  Similarly  the  modern  stone  to  the 
memory  of  John  Howland,  of  the  May  Flower 
company,  and  who  died  at  his  home  in  Rocky  Nook, 
in  1672-1673,  marks  no  definite  grave,  though  he 
was  supposed  to  have  been  buried  on  the  hill.  John 
Howland  is  well  remembered,  however,  as  the  last 
survivor  of  the  first  colonists  residing  in  Plymouth. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  eighty  years. 

The  grave  of  Francis  Le  Baron,  a  surgeon  on  a 
French  privateer,  fitted  at  Bordeaux  and  wrecked 
in  Buzzards  Bay,  has  a  romantic  interest  for  visitors 
as  the  resting  place  of  the  hero  of  the  American 
Jane  Austen's  "  Nameless  Nobleman."  Her  story 
tells,  with  much  fidelity  to  fact,  of  the  crew  of  his 
vessel  being  taken  to  Boston  as  prisoners  of  war. 
In  passing  through  Plymouth  Dr.  Le  Baron  suc- 
cessfully operated  upon  a  suffering  citizen,  and  for 
this  service  was  liberated  and  remained  to  become  a 


TOMBSTONE    OF    FRANCIS    LE    BARON,       THE    NAMELESS    NOBLEMAN, 
BURIAL    HILL,   PLYMOUTH. 


HOUSE  OF  THE 
"NAMELESS  NOBLEMAN' 
AT  FAL MOUTH. 
FROM  AN  ETCH  I  NT, 
BY  SEARS  GALI.AC.HKR. 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  209 

successful  practitioner  in  the  town.  He  married 
Mary  Wilder,  of  Plymouth,  and  their  son,  Lazarus, 
whose  stone  stands  near  that  of  his  parents,  suc- 
ceeded to  his  father's  practice.  The  stone  is  hand- 
somely inscribed: 

HERE    LYES    Y    BODY 
OF    FRANCIS   LEBARRAN 

PHYTICIAN    WHO 

DEPARTED    THIS   LIFE 

AUG    Y    2    1704 

IN    Y    36    YEAR 

OF    HIS    AGE 

Until  about  half  a  century  ago  nature  pursued 
her  course  unmolested  on  Burial  Hill.  Badly 
broken  and  defaced  gravestones  lay  about  the 
ground  and  every  winter  more  ancient  slates  gave 
way  to  ruthless  storms  and  destructive  frosts.  A 
list  of  inscriptions  begun  about  this  time,  and  since 
published,1  preserves  many  for  which  no  stones  can 
now  be  found. 

About  the  year  1735,  during  a  heavy  storm,  a 
tremendous  freshet  rushed  through  Middle  Street, 
washing  away  the  bank  of  Cole's  Hill  at  its  foot  and 
laying  bare  many  of  the  traditional  graves  of  the 
Forefathers,  washing  their  bones  into  the  sea.  Later 

1  Epitaphs  from  Burial  Hill,  Bradford  Kingman,  1892. 


210    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

in  digging  the  cellar  of  a  house  in  Middle  Street, 
part  of  a  skeleton  was  found,  but  not  preserved, 
and  in  1855  workmen  engaged  in  digging  a  trench 
for  the  waterworks  discovered  parts  of  five  skele- 
tons in  the  same  vicinity.  This  appeared  to  estab- 
lish beyond  question  the  tradition  that  Cole's  Hill 
received  the  bodies  of  the  victims  of  the  first  winter 
on  these  shores.  These  bones  sealed  in  a  metal  cof- 
fin, are  deposited  in  a  chamber  in  the  canopy  over 
the  Rock,  at  the  base  of  the  hill.  A  granite  slab  at 
the  top  of  the  hill  marks  the  repository  of  several 
other  skeletons  that  were  exhumed  later  in  digging 
post  holes  for  the  fence  which  divides  the  grassy 
slope  from  the  driveway  at  its  summit. 

Plymouth  suffers  singularly  in  her  efforts  at  the 
monumental.  It  is  unfortunate  that  she  awoke  to 
this  fancied  need  at  the  worst  period  of  our  national 
adolescence  in  matters  of  taste.  The  granite  can- 
opy over  the  Rock  dates  from  the  same  year  that 
saw  the  inception  of  that  greater  evil  the  national 
Monument  to  the  Forefathers,  which  stands  on  the 
noblest  eminence  of  the  beautiful  town,  its  gigan- 
tesque  proportions,  upon  which  guidebooks  have 
seized  as  facts  with  which  to  stagger  visitors,  for- 
ever doing  violence  to  the  most  sacred  traditions  of 
modest  men  whose  memory  it  would  honour  and 
perpetuate. 


MODERN   PLYMOUTH  211 

The  absurdity  of  the  thrice  moved  rock,  under  its 
ponderous  canopy,  deprives  the  renowned  relic  of 
its  simple  dignity.  Threatened  by  extinction  in 
1741,  when  it  was  proposed  to  build  a  wharf  over 
it,  the  pious  protests  of  faithful  citizens  availed 
little  against  the  necessities  of  commerce.  The 
wharf  was  built  and  in  the  pathway  of  the  rock,  but 
before  its  completion  a  ceremony  of  farewell  was 
enacted  \vhich  has  fixed  beyond  all  peradventure 
the  identity  of  the  Forefathers'  stepping-stone. 
Elder  Thomas  Faunce,  whose  grave  may  be  found 
on  Burial  Hill,  then  ninety-four  years  of  age,  was 
carried  to  the  shore  and  in  the  presence  of  a  num- 
ber of  persons,  gathered  to  witness  the  benediction 
of  the  patriarch,  pointed  out  the  rock  "  bedewed  it 
with  his  tears  and  bid  it  an  everlasting  adieu." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  rock  was  rv 
totally  buried.     Public   sentiment,   so  touching! 
expressed  evidently  had  its  effect,  and  the  builder 
of  the  wharf  are  supposed  to  have  dragged  the  roc1: 
from  its  bed  farther  up  on  the  beach  where  im- 
bedded in  the  paving  its  top  might  still  be  visibl 
above  the  roadway  of  the  wharf.    Again  OVP- 
ous  patriots  in  1744  on  the  brink  of  the  T?> 
resolved  to  consecrate  the  precious  relic  to  the    i" 
of  liberty,  and  proposed  to  remove  the  rock  bodily 
to  the  Town  Square.    Thatcher  tells  us  that  Colonel 


212     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Theophilus  Cotton  and  a  large  number  of  inhabi- 
tants assembled  with  about  thirty  yoke  of  oxen  to 
convey  the  rock  to  a  more  conspicuous  place.1 

Plymouth  Rock  was  originally  a  solitary  boulder 
of  about  seven  tons,  and  presumably  of  glacial  de- 
posit. It  is  of  greenish  syenite,  and  must  have  been  a 
conspicuous  object  in  May  Flower  days,  as  the  only 
rock  on  a  long  stretch  of  sandy  coast.  Its  removal 
constituted  something  of  an  engineering  feat,  a  feat 
beyond  the  prowess  of  the  ambitious  patriots,  it 
would  seem,  for  in  attempting  to  mount  it  on  the 
carriage,  it  split  asunder,  "  without  any  violence," 
says  Thatcher,  and  the  lower  part  dropped  back  to 
its  bed.  The  separation  of  the  rock  was  considered 
a  symbol  of  the  successful  outcome  of  the  struggle 
for  independence.  Nothing  daunted  the  upper  half 
of  the  severed  rock  was  carried  to  the  To\vn  Square 
and  there  installed  with  triumphant  ceremony.  It 
remained  there  for  over  half  a  century. 

Meanwhile  the  Old  Colony  Pilgrim  Society  was 
founded  in  1820,  and  Pilgrim  Hall  was  built  as  its 
headquarters,  and,  as  part  of  a  Fourth  of  July 
demonstration  in  the  year  1 834,  the  fragment  of  the 
rock  was  again  loaded  upon  a  vehicle  and  dragged 
to  what  was  considered  a  more  fitting  location  in 
front  of  the  proud  edifice.  For  another  fifty  years 

1  History  of  the  Town  of  Plymouth.     Thatcher.      2d  edition,  1835. 


MODKKX    PLYMOUTH  213 

the  relic  stood  in  the  garden  to  the  left  of  the  old 
wooden  portico  of  the  original  facade  of  the  hall, 
to  the  unending  puzzlement  of  visitors,  who  would 
stare  in  amazement  at  the  relative  locations  of  the 
harbour  and  the  stepping-stone  and  man-el  at  the 
stride  of  the  mighty  ancestors.  In  1880  by  a  sud- 
den accession  of  wisdom,  the  detached  portion  was 
reunited  to  the  parent  rock  at  the  head  of  the  wharf, 
the  land  having  meanwhile  come  into  the  possession 
of  the  Pilgrim  Society.  Further  plans  for  the  res- 
toration of  the  whole  environment  contemplated 
the  removal  of  the  unfortunate  canopy  and  the  un- 
sightly wharves  which  lie  at  the  foot  of  Cole's  Hill. 

The  architect  of  the  canopy  was  the  architect  of 
the  monument,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  A  me- 
morial to  the  Forefathers  had  been  projected  since 
1 794,  when  Joseph  Coolidge  of  Boston  gave  a  guinea 
as  the  nucleus  of  the  fund,  but  it  was  not  until 
1854  that  a  competition  was  held  and  a  firm  of 
Hungarians,  Messrs.  Zuckner  and  Asboth,  won  the 
prize  offered  for  the  best  plans  and  estimates:  Ham- 
matt  Billings,  however,  received  the  contract  for 
both  the  canopy  over  the  rock  and  the  monument. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  latter  was  laid  in  1859 
and  the  monument  was  completed  in  1888,  its  erec- 
tion therefore  covers  the  epoch  of  the  Civil  War  and 
the  Centennial  period.  The  Pilyrim  Society  fathered 


the  project,  and  the  cost  of  erection  was  defrayed 
by  various  organizations  and  individual  contribu- 
tors. Hammatt  Billings  died  during  the  progress 
of  the  work,  but  his  brother,  Joseph,  carried  out  the 
contract  according  to  the  other's  drawings. 

The  whole  thing  is  a  dreary  pile  of  heavy  realism. 
Furthermore  the  monument  is  out  of  scale  with 
little  Plymouth  —  it  would  be  a  monster  even  in 
New  York.  The  figure  of  Faith  which  surmounts 
the  main  pedestal,  is  a  frank  adaptation  of  the  Venus 
de  Milo,  modelled  by  a  rather  eminent  Boston 
sculptor,  painter,  and  physician,  Dr.  William  Rim- 
mer,  after  a  design  furnished  by  the  architect.  The 
contract  was  staggering.  Dr.  Rimmer  agreed  to 
deliver  in  two  and  a  half  months'  time,  for  the  sum 
of  $2,000,  a  nine-foot  statue  in  plaster,  from  which 
the  finished  stone  figure  was  to  be  enlarged  and  cut. 

The  original  statue,  as  Rimmer  completed  it,  was 
in  effect  a  modified  Venus  with  the  foot  and  arms 
restored,  the  characteristic  small  head.  The  raised 
foot  is  supposed  to  rest  upon  the  famous  rock;  the 
right  hand  points  upward  to  suggest  the  subject, 
the  left  holds  a  Bible.  All  these  details  were  im- 
posed upon  the  sculptor,  who,  that  he  might  not 
depart  from  them  was  furnished  with  a  small  model 
of  the  architect's  design  "  for  his  guidance." 

Despite  the  banality  of  the  idea,  the  haste  re- 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  215 

quired,  and  the  absurdly  inadequate  compensation 
stipulated  in  the  contract,  not  to  speak  of  his  obliga- 
tion to  meet  "the  entire  satisfaction  of  Joseph  Bil- 
lings," Dr.  Rimmer,  who  was  a  conscientious  soul, 
took  pains  with  the  modelling  of  the  figure,  cover- 
ing the  body  with  a  filmy  drapery  that  revealed  the 
development  of  the  muscles  and  the  lines  of  the 
form,  in  classic  style.  Evidently  this  last  detail 
was  not  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  architect's 
brother.  Mr.  Billings  paid  the  bill,  however,  with- 
out protest,  and  summarily  handed  Dr.  Rimmer's 
work  over  to  another  sculptor  to  "use  as  a  frame- 
work" for  the  figure  as  it  now  stands.  By  way  of 
making  it  acceptable  to  the  architect,  this  sculptor, 
evidently  something  of  a  jobber,  made  a  new  and 
bigger  head,  loaded  the  figure  with  bunchy  dra- 
peries, effectively  concealing  the  form,  receiving  for 
his  pains  the  sum  of  $300.  Aside  from  Dr.  Rim- 
mer's part,  the  so-called  sculpture  on  the  monument 
was  furnished  by  the  granite  company  which  pro- 
vided the  stone,  according  to  the  desperate  methods 
of  the  day. 

I  first  saw  Plymouth  early  in  the  month  of  July, 
when  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  town  was  fra- 
grant with  the  bloom  of  the  linden  trees,  which  are 
many  in  Plymouth.  The  setting  cannot  fail  to 
strike  one  as  exquisite.  This  oldest  town  of  New 


216     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

England  has  undeniable  style  and  distinction.  The 
railway  station,  the  terminus  of  the  line,  lies  back 
close  to  the  water,  and  fronts  upon  a  grassy  place, 
lined  with  handsome  trees  through  which  one  walks 
to  Court  Street,  the  main  thoroughfare.  Court 
Street,  really  the  widened  and  improved  Indian 
trail  of  remoter  times,  to  the  left  leads  on  to  the  site 
of  the  old  town,  and  followed,  under  various 
changes  of  name,  makes  straight  away  down  the 
south  coast  past  Manomet,  through  Sagamore, 
Sandwich,  and  thence  "  down  Cape." 

That  Greek  temple  on  the  left,  at  the  corner  of 
Chilton  Street,  is  Pilgrim  Hall,  the  first  and  most 
worthy  monument  to  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrims. 
Besides  a  rare  and  valuable  library  belonging  to 
the  Pilgrim  Society,  is  a  collection  of  interesting 
souvenirs  of  the  planters  of  the  colony.  The  sword 
of  Myles  Standish,  a  Damascus  blade  inscribed 
with  Arabic  legends,  perhaps  an  heritage  from  the 
Crusaders;  Governor  Bradford's  Bible,  printed  at 
Geneva  in  1592;  Peregrine  White's  cradle  which 
crossed,  preparedly,  on  the  May  Flower;  the  patent 
of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  the  oldest  state  document 
in  New  England  —  the  same  that  Robert  Cushman 
brought  over  in  the  Fortune,  in  1621 ;  these  are  a 
few  of  the  treasures  of  Plymouth  —  touching  relics 
that  offer  tangible  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  Pilgrim 


MANSION    AT   THE  CORNER   OF   COUR1 
BUILT   IN    l8o5. 


NORTH    STREET   THROWING    OUT   A    LEFT    BRANCH — W1NSLOW    STREET— 

BOTH   LEADING   TO   THE   HARBOUR. 

PHOTOGRAPHS    BY    HELEN    MESS1NGER    MURDOCK. 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  217 

story.  And  still  more  convincing  perhaps  is  the 
frame  of  the  Sparrowhatvk,  wrecked  on  Cape  Cod, 
about  which  Bradford  gossips  in  his  annals  Of 
Plimoth  Plantation. 

That  beautiful  mansion,  at  the  corner  of  Court 
Square,  is  said  to  have  been  built  in  1805,  and  from 
the  elegance  of  its  proportions  and  finish  has  been 
ascribed  to  Charles  Bulfinch.  In  any  case  it  is 
worthy  to  stand  with  the  finest  of  the  Mclntire 
houses  in  old  Salem;  especially  was  it  originally  of 
that  company,  for  until  1840  its  porch  was  rounded 
and  supported  by  clover-leaf  columns,  harmonizing 
with  the  windows  as  they  are  to-day. 

Within,  at  the  invitation  of  the  chdtelain,  I  sat  in 
Governor  Bradford's  chair  and  held  in  my  hands 
the  Commentary  on  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon, 
printed  by  William  Brewster,  at  Leyden,  in  1617. 
After,  a  wide  door  in  the  rear  of  the  mansion,  dis- 
closed, as  a  great  surprise,  a  glorious  New  England 
garden,  completely  concealed  from  the  street  by 
something  distressingly  modern  and  practical.  This 
luxuriant  garden  wandered  half  way  through  the 
block  and  at  its  extremity  rose  a  gorgeous  Welling- 
ton elm,  flinging  long  spare  arms  with  graceful 
abandon  across  the  sky  and  then  breaking  out  into 
a  shower  of  perfect  leaves,  which  fluttered  back  to 
earth  like  the  most  spectacular  of  rockets.  The 


218     A  LOITERER  IN  XEW  ENGLAND 

charm  of  this  hidden  garden  was  like  a  Swinburne 
poem. 

The  essence  of  old  Plymouth  confines  itself  to 
an  egg-shaped  section  in  the  heart  of  the  modern 
town.  Taking  a  turn  to  the  right  from  Court 
Street  through  South  Russell  Street,  one  enters 
Burial  Hill  by  a  back  way;  crossing  its  summit,  the 
obvious  path  leads  again  to  the  Main  Street  —  a 
continuation  of  the  modernized  Indian  trail  —  and 
across  Town  Square  lies  Leyden  Street,  with  the 
Town  Brook  on  the  right.  We  are  now  upon  the 
site  of  the  first  houses  of  the  colonists,  built  upon 
the  south  side  of  the  street  so  that  their  gardens  ran 
down  to  the  brook  and  enjoyed  a  sunny  exposure. 
A  tablet  affixed  to  a  frame  dwelling  as  the  street 
declines  marks  the  location  of  the  Common  House, 
the  first  building  erected  by  the  Pilgrims. 

Looking  up  Leyden  Street,  across  Town  Square, 
and  over  the  very  modern  Church  of  the  First 
Parish,  imagination  may  visualize  the  Old  Fort  and 
the  Watch  Tower  of  three  centuries  ago,  when 
Elder  Brewster's  property  replaced  the  handsome 
post-office  of  our  day,  and  Governor  Bradford 
lived  diagonally  opposite,  under  the  shelter  of  Fort 
Hill.  'The  houses,"  writes  de  Rasieres,  despatched 
on  an  embassy  from  New  Amsterdam  to  the  Plym- 
outh Colony,  in  1627,  "are  constructed  of  hewn 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH  219 

planks  with  gardens  also  enclosed  behind  and  the 
sides  with  hewn  planks,  so  that  their  houses  and 
courtyards  are  arranged  in  very  good  order,  with  a 
stockade  against  a  sudden  attack,  and  at  the  ends  of 
the  street  there  are  three  wooden  gates.  In  the 
centre  on  the  cross  street  stands  the  governor's 
house,  before  which  is  a  square  enclosure  upon  which 
four  patereros  ( steen  stucken )  are  mounted  so  as  to 
flank  along  the  streets." 

Behind  the  Burial  Hill,  following  a  street  which 
winds  out  from  the  Town  Square,  lies  the  route  to 
Morton  Park  and  the  famous  Billington  Sea, 
named  for  its  nefarious  discoverer. 

A  pretty  characteristic  in  Plymouth  is  a  habit  its 
streets  have  of  branching  out,  one  from  another,  due 
to  its  three  levels.  Leyden  Street  throws  out  a 
graceful  left  branch  to  take  care  of  the  brow  of 
Cole's  Hill,  itself  wandering  steeply  down  the 
slope  to  Water  Street,  amongst  the  wharves  and 
past  the  Plymouth  Rock.  The  blunt  end  of  the 
egg  is  upon  the  harbour;  Carver  Street  parallels 
Water  Street,  looking  down  into  the  roofs  of 
houses  on  the  lower  thoroughfare  at  its  most  salient 
curve.  There  is  something  charmingly  Knglish 
about  Plymouth  —  something  exceptionally  in- 
dividual in  its  terraced  setting. 

The  brow  of  Cole's  Hill,  shaded  with  more  low 


branching  lindens  and  magnificent  elms,  contains 
within  itself  the  romanticism  of  centuries.  I  used 
to  love  to  walk  there  at  night,  under  the  stars,  all 
modern  Plymouth  blotted  out  by  the  obscuring 
dark,  to  recreate  for  myself  the  primitive  environ- 
ment of  the  first  comers  —  the  graves  here  freshly 
filled  under  foot,  the  seven  houses  around  the  bend 
there  in  Leyden  Street,  that  steady  spot  of  light  at 
the  end  of  the  Beach  might  easily  be  the  beacon 
upon  the  May  Flower,  standing  by,  the  one  link 
with  the  old  life,  comfort,  civilization. 

Suddenly  the  climax  of  the  summer  evening  would 
come  -  —  a  small,  clear,  over-brilliant  constellation, 
growing  incredibly  out  of  the  horizon  and  moving 
rapidly  along  the  furthermost  border  of  vision.  The 
illusion  of  the  past  was  gone  —  this  was  the  New 
York  boat,  making  with  speed  for  the  short  cut 
through  the  Cape  Cod  Canal. 


CHAPTER   X 
SALEM   OF   THE   WITCHES 

SALEM  plants  frankly  her  worst  foot  foremost.  A 
city  deflected  from  its  intended  course  by  the  caprice 
of  fortune,  the  immediate  prospect  into  which  the 
aesthetic  loiterer  is  steamed,  over  the  antiquated 
roadway  from  Lynn  and  Boston,  is  the  one  which, 
though  standing  upon  oldest  ground,  has  been  most 
"  tampered  with  "  in  the  effort  of  a  petty  commerce 
to  react  against  the  oblivion  into  which  vaster  en- 
terprise has  cast  this  delicious  town. 

That  the  loiterer  is  steamed  at  all,  in  place  of  be- 
ing wafted,  as  was  the  original  intention,  makes  at 
once  for  the  false  note  in  the  picture,  offers  the 
awakening  jolt  to  serene  asstheticism.  All  that  is 
beautiful,  historic,  epic  in  Salem  antedates  the 
steam  road,  which,  as  a  mere  afterthought,  drags  us 
in  by  a  back  way,  through  the  debris  of  the  great 
fire,  past  the  horrors  of  the  reconstruction  period, 
presents  the  picture  —  to  return  to  my  figure  — 
upside  down,  wrong  side  out. 

Yet  the  afterthought,  as  a  symbol  of  the  turning 

current  which  left  Salem,  at  the  height  of  its  pros- 

221 


222     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

perity,  stranded  and  impotent,  operating  at  the 
same  time  to  the  immense  advantage  of  such  then 
minor  ports  as  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadel- 
phia, explains  so  much  of  Salem's  plight,  that  it 
may  be  well,  just  here  on  the  threshold,  to  deal  with 
it  now. 

This  threshold,  in  fact,  considering  it  to  be  the 
early  Norman  shell  which  stands  thinly  before  the 
train  shed,  marks  the  last  stand  which  the  town 
made  against  supersession,  before  yielding,  relin- 
quishing its  claim  to  be  the  court  city  of  New  Eng- 
land. Salem,  the  most  ancient  town  of  old  Massa- 
chusetts, the  second  English  settlement  of  New 
England,  the  second  city  to  be  incorporated  in  the 
commonwealth,  had  from  the  beginning  been 
thought  destined  to  be  the  seat  of  state  govern- 
ment. And  it  was  in  the  fond  conviction  that  the 
chief  business  of  the  Old  Eastern  Railroad  would 
be  conducted  in  Salem,  that  David  Augustus  Neal, 
its  president,  built  this  imposing  gateway  to  his 
native  place. 

The  sublime  irrelevance  of  early  Norman  intru- 
sion in  this  purest  of  Georgian  settings  of  castel- 
lated turrets  and  mullioned  windows,  screening  the 
sooty  exhalations  of  transient  engines  that  thun- 
dered into  the  artless  rear  of  the  masked  train  shed, 
and  charged  on  through  the  unsubstantiated  facade, 


SALEM    OF    THE    WITCHES       223 

and  so,  burrowing  Washington  Street,  through  a 
short  black  tunnel,  on  to  Beverly  —  was  not  to 
strike  this  ardent  citizen  bent  wholly  and  only  upon 
enriching  still  further  the  already  famous  architec- 
ture of  his  town.  Salem  folks  were  accustomed  to 
exotics;  the  captains  had  for  upwards  of  two  cen- 
turies been  bringing  curios  from  the  Eastern  ports 
into  the  town,  but  until  now  they  had  been  satisfied 
with  the  designs  of  the  local  housewrights  for  their 
dwellings  and  public  buildings.  Just  what  they 
thought  of  this  first  departure  from  the  simplicity  of 
indigenous  building  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover. 
David  Augustus  Xeal  had  been  abroad,  he  had  seen 
such  things  in  foreign  cities  —  inland  cities  where  the 
captains  did  not  go  —  and  in  place  of  bringing  ob- 
jects for  the  museum  he  brought  ideas  for  a  far 
grander  Salem  —  Salem  the  capital  of  Massa- 
chusetts—  and  possibly  the  quiet  citizens  accepted 
the  turrets  and  the  rest  as  something  befitting  its 
potential  exaltation. 

That  it  took  a  certain  hold  on  the  place  is  shown 
by  the  old  church  of  about  the  same  epoch  (1846) 
which  faces  the  ancient  common,  presenting  a  Mel- 
rose  Abbey  window  between  indented  towers,  and 
designed  by  Richard  Upjohn,  the  famous  architect 
of  Xew  York's  famous  Trinity  Church,  finished 
this  same  year. 


224     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

In  the  comparative  juvenility  of  one's  own  back- 
ward reach,  as  reaches  go,  the  Salem  threshold  was 
already  old  and  blackened  with  age  and  use  when 
first  seen  on  a  trip  to  the  end  of  Cape  Ann,  when 
it  was  accepted  unquestioningly  as  one  of  the 
"  sights  "  of  a  more  extended  travel  than  had  hith- 
erto been  taken.  It  seemed  in  those  days  quite  the 
most  symbolic  thing  in  Salem,  and,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  short,  black  tunnel,  far  more  sug- 
gestive of  witches  and  witching  than  Gallows  Hill, 
for  all  its  awful  name;  or  the  Witch  House,  en- 
deared more  particularly  to  the  unfledged  mind  as 
a  storehouse  of  the  native  and,  alas,  all  too  late 
lamented  Salem  Gibraltar,  of  happy  memory;  or 
the  mild-mannered  slate  in  the  burying  ground  over 
the  mortal  remains  of  the  wife  of  old  Giles  Corey  — 
he,  poor  dear,  was  crushed  to  death  for  holding  his 
tongue,  in  the  witchcraft  trials,  and  so,  one  pictured, 
had  no  mortal  remains;  more  suggestive,  in  fine, 
than  the  House  of  Seven  Gables  itself,  hopelessly 
confounded  in  one's  summary  of  the  ancient  leg- 
ends, but  made  out  vaguely  by  the  fledgling  to  have 
had  to  do  with  witching  because  of  its  many  peaked 
ends,  or  hoods,  clearly  relics  of  the  witches  them- 
selves ! 

The  Old  Eastern  Railway  wears  its  giant's  robe 
loosely,  carelessly,  a  thin  disguise  donned  by  a  bold 


THE   HOUSE  OF   SEVEN   GABLES.      ERECTED    1662,    REMODELED    IQIO. 


THE      GREAT    HOUSE   , 
BUILT   BY    PHILIP 
ENGLISH    IN    1685. 
FROM    A    SKETCH    IN 
THE  ESSEX  INSTITUTE 
RECONSTRUCTED  FROM 
A   CONTEMPORARY 
DRAWING. 


SALEM    OF    THE    WITCHES       225 

masquerader  who  came  to  town  intent  upon  plun- 
der and  who  got  away  with  literally  everything 
there  was  to  take.  What  the  swaggering  bully  came 
for  is  only  too  pitifully  evident,  if  one  will  but  take 
the  trouble  to  delve,  or  even  to  dip  a  little  into  the 
annals  of  the  town. 

Salem's  prestige  was  as  a  port.  Its  proper  and 
logical  approach  is  from  the  sea.  As  one  sails  into 
the  harbour  around  the  promontory  of  Marblehead, 
or  along  the  coast  from  the  Eastern  Point  of  Cape 
Ann,  one  gets  the  true  picture  of  the  town  —  from 
that  side  the  scene  is  set,  and  any  other  entree  is  to 
enter  the  stage  from  behind  the  scenes  or  through 
the  wings.  My  theory  is  that  what  with  witches  and 
witchcraft,  which  have  been  vastly  overworked ;  and 
Hawthorne  and  his  scarcely  localized  Seven  Gables, 
in  which  the  tourist  mind  has  been  steeped,  and 
which  if  faithfully  followed  up  can  readily  consume 
the  few  hours  between  trains  usually  allotted  for  the 
"doing"  of  Salem,  the  intenser  romance  of  the 
dead  maritime  industries,  extinguished  by  the  rail- 
road, has  been  overlooked,  or  minimized  fairly  out 
of  its  true  relation  . 

The  only  communication  of  the  first  settlers  with 
the  civilized  world,  we  are  constantly  to  remind  our- 
selves, was  by  sea.  There  were  no  roads ;  almost  all 
traffic  between  the  colonies  was  bv  water.  This  was 


226     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

especially  true  of  New  England,  whose  sea  was  full 
of  fish,  and  whose  forests  ran  down  to  the  water's 
edge,  convenient  for  the  building  of  boats.  When 
the  Plymouth  Colony  sent  its  first  offshoot  to  the 
North  Shore  it  came  by  the  simple  short  way  across 
the  water.  As  Naumkeag,  or  Marble-harbour,  or 
Salem,  to  give  its  three  stages  at  a  bound,  was  first 
"  patented "  it  embraced  in  one  New  England 
"town"  the  villages  now  known  as  Manchester, 
Beverly,  Danvers,  Peabody,  Middleton,  with  parts 
of  Lynn,  Topsfield,  and  Wenham.  Middleton, 
Topsfield,  and  Wenham  are  inland,  but  the  others 
were  all  readily  enough  accessible  by  boats,  though 
awkward  to  come  at  by  land.  There  were  indeed 
so  many  boats  plying  across  the  harbour  and  up 
and  down  the  rivers  that  Pastor  Higginson,  writ- 
ing in  1633,  says  "There  be  more  canoes  in  this 
town  than  in  all  the  whole  patent ;  every  household 
having  a  water  horse  or  two." 

The  first  of  the  now  dead  maritime  industries 
was  fishing.  In  the  library  of  the  Essex  Institute 
in  Salem  may  be  seen  Roger  Conant's  charter, 
dated  1 623,  which  licensed  the  settling  of  the  North 
Shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Early  in  the  year 
1624  Robert  Cushman  wrote  Bradford:  "We  have 
tooke  a  patente  for  Cape  Anne."  This  patent  or 
charter  was  issued  by  Lord  Sheffield,  a  member  of 


SALEM   OF   THE    WITCHES       227 

the  council  for  New  England,  to  the  associates  of 
Robert  Cushman  and  Edward  Winslow.  It  gave 
"  free  liberty  to  ffish,  fowl,  hawke,  and  hunt,  truck, 
and  trade,"  in  the  region  of  Cape  Ann.  Five  hun- 
dred acres  were  to  be  reserved  for  public  uses,  "  as 
for  the  building  of  a  towne,  schooles,  churches,  hos- 
pitals," etc.,  and  thirty  acres  were  to  be  allotted  every 
person,  young  or  old,  who  should  come  and  dwell 
at  Cape  Ann  within  the  next  seven  years.  These 
allotments  were  to  be  made  "in  one  entire  place, 
and  not  stragling  in  dyvers  or  remote  parcells." 
This  whole  grant  furthermore  was  not  to  exceed 
one  and  a  half  miles  of  water  front.  This  was  the 
first  legal  basis  for  the  settlement  and  defence  of 
an  English  town  upon  Cape  Ann,  where  Glouces- 
ter was  afterwards  built. 

The  big  idea  with  England,  or  with  the  "  adven- 
turers" -the  word  was  used  in  the  special  old 
sense  of  speculators  —  formed  into  divers  compa- 
nies to  open  up  the  resources  of  the  colonial  posses- 
sions—  was  to  push  the  settlement  of  the  large 
grants  by  dividing  the  land  in  severalty  amongst 
their  members.  The  region  about  Cape  Ann  fell 
to  Edmund,  Lord  Sheffield;  he  sold  the  patent  for 
it  to  Cushman  and  Winslow,  acting  for  the  Plym- 
outh Colony.  England,  as  we  know,  had  but  the 
vaguest  ideas  upon  the  extent  of  the  territory 


228     A   LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

which  it  dispensed  with  an  indiscriminate  largesse 
that  frequently  led  to  bitter  misunderstandings 
when  the  various  owners  came  to  take  possession  of 
grants  or  purchases.  When  the  Plymouth  Colony 
attempted  to  push  its  claim  upon  Cape  Ann  it 
found  the  place  already  planted  as  a  fishing  stage 
by  the  "Dorchester  Adventurers,"  an  unincorpor- 
ated stock  company  of  merchants  in  the  shire  town 
of  Dorset,  who  had  been  sending  vessels  to  fish  off 
the  New  England  coast.  For  the  time  the  two 
claimants  made  room  for  each  other  and  agreed, 
but  inevitable  disputes  and  complications  were 
finally  settled,  in  1624,  by  Winslow's  company  sell- 
ing out  its  rights  —  comprising  the  site  of  Glouces- 
ter—  to  the  Dorchester  Adventurers. 

The  Pilgrims  were  very  bad  fishermen.  There  is 
recorded  no  instance  of  a  successful  fishing  stage 
being  conducted  by  any  of  the  off-shoots  of  the  Pil- 
grim fathers.  Roger  Conant  made  a  signal  failure 
of  the  business  when,  upon  a  reconstruction  of  the 
management  of  the  settlement  at  Cape  Ann,  he 
was  invited  by  the  Dorchester  Company  to  act  as 
overseer  or  governor  of  that  enterprise.  Hubbard 
describes  him  as  a  "religious,  sober,  and  prudent 
gentleman."  He  figures  in  the  early  history  of  the 
planters  as  an  independent  settler,  who  had  with- 
drawn from  Plymouth  because  of  a  disaffection  for 


SALEM    OF   THE    WITCHES       229 

the  Separatist  views  of  that  community.  With  the 
failure  of  the  fishing  stage  at  Gloucester,  followed 
the  dissolution  of  the  "  adventurers  "  and  most  of 
the  settlers  returned  to  England.  Conant  mar- 
shalled the  remnant  of  the  colony  and  transplanted 
it  to  the  sheltered  harbour  of  the  peninsula  known 
to  the  Indians  as  Nahumkeike  or  Naumkeag,  where 
he  founded  Salem. 

Conant 's  staunch  character  was  all  that  held  the 
depleted  colony  together  during  the  first  months 
which  followed  his  removal  to  Salem.  His  little 
band  was  all  for  disintegration,  flight  to  Virginia, 
or  even  home  to  England;  but  Conant  had  the 
tenacity  of  purpose  of  strong  men  and  he  stayed 
the  flight,  as  he  himelf  says,  by  his  "  utter  deniall  to 
goe  away"  and  so  they  held  the  ground  taken,  at 
the  "  hassard  "  of  their  lives. 

While  they  held  the  ground  their  cause  was 
pushed  zealously  at  home  by  the  Reverend  John 
White,  of  Dorchester,  a  famous  Puritan  divine, 
usually  called  the  Patriarch  of  Dorchester,  whose 
heart  was  set  upon  the  establishment  of  colonies  in 
Massachusetts  which  might  become  places  of  ref- 
uge from  the  corruptions  and  oppressions  which 
prevailed  at  home  under  James  I.  Conant  came  to 
Naumkeag  in  the  autumn  of  1626  and  there  were 
two  years  of  solitary  struggle  there  for  mainte- 


230     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

nance  before  White  was  able  to  make  good  his  prom- 
ises to  the  colony.  Through  his  intervention,  how- 
ever, in  the  spring  of  1628,  a  grant  was  obtained 
from  the  Council  for  New  England,  conveying  a 
new  territory  included  liberally  between  three  miles 
north  of  the  Merrimac  River  and  three  miles  south 
of  the  Charles,  and  extending  grandly  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific  oceans.  This  grant  was  of 
course  made  when  the  Pacific  coast  was  supposed  to 
lie  not  far  west  of  the  Hudson,  and,  in  the  usual 
heedless  style,  ignored  several  preceding  patents 
obligingly  issued  for  parts  of  the  same  territory, 
engendering  disputes  and  wrangles  which  were  to 
occupy  the  settlers  for  fully  half  a  century  to  come. 
The  grant  was,  however,  backed  up  by  the  arrival 
of  John  Endecott,  in  September  of  the  same  year, 
with  sixty  persons  to  reinforce  the  settlement  at 
Nawnkeag,  and  with  a  charter  which  suspended 
that  of  Roger  Conant,  disposed  of  in  the  casual 
manner  of  the  remoter  government.  In  the  ensu- 
ing months  eleven  ships  brought  a  total  of  1,500 
colonists  to  swell  the  domain,  and,  Conant  ousted, 
Endecott  found  himself  governor  of  a.  larger  colony 
than  Plymouth  after  its  nine  years  of  struggle  and 
growth.  Roger  Conant's  part  was  played,  he  could 
but  yield  to  Endecott's  authority,  while  the  first  set- 
tlers were  transferred  along  with  the  land,  the  whole 


SALEM   OF   THE    WITCHES       231 

incorporated  into  a  town  under  the  Hebrew  name, 
Salem,  to  signify  the  peace  which  they  established 
together  there. 

With  a  profounder  sense  of  the  psychology  of 
government  than  is  usually  accredited  to  them,  the 
home  guard  in  outfitting  the  colonial  settlements 
saw  well  to  it  that  some  form  of  the  "  church  "  should 
go  hand  in  hand  with  the  elements  of  "  state." 

When  Roger  Conant  split  away  from  the  Plym- 
outh Colony  it  was  in  company  with  others  who 
sided  with  the  Rev.  John  Lyford,  who  had  been 
banished  from  that  community.  We  read  so  much 
about  the  religious  intolerance  of  the  Puritan  set- 
tlements that  it  seems  only  fair  to  acquit  the  Fore- 
fathers, in  this  case,  of  any  religious  prej  udice.  The 
case  against  the  Rev.  John  Lyford,  as  related  in  the 
Bradford  History,  has  little  enough  to  do  with  re- 
ligion, save  where  the  offender  profited  by  the  pro- 
tection of  his  cloth,  and  makes  as  pretty  a  piece  of 
common  scandal  as  one  could  wish  to  read.  Brad- 
ford deals  with  it  with  that  naivete  and  simplicity 
that  makes  the  charm  of  his  narrative  throughout 
-he  never  seems  to  judge  in  so  many  words,  but 
one  feels  the  intensely  human  passion  through  his 
temperate  sentences,  and  with  what  satisfaction  he 
sits  back  and  watches  the  working  out  of  a  divine 
vengeance. 


232     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  specific  charge  against  Lyf ord  —  the  last 
straw  added  to  much  incriminating  evidence  of  a 
similar  nature,  adduced  by  his  unfortunate  wife  — 
Bradford  goes  into  with  considerable  restraint,  yet 
artfully  disclosing  the  whole  sordid  story  —  a  sor- 
did story  which  is,  however,  perversely,  not  without 
its  distinctly  humorous  side.  Lyford  in  his  ca- 
pacity as  pastor  of  the  flock  is  appealed  to  by  one  of 
the  ingenuous  young  lambs  to  pass  upon  the  worthi- 
ness of  a  young  woman  whom  the  youth  thinks  of 
taking  for  a  wife,  yet  holds  his  ardour  in  abeyance 
pending  the  decision  of  his  spiritual  adviser  as  to 
the  wisdom  of  his  choice.  Lyford  with  a  caution  all 
too  exemplary  defers  judgment,  putting  the  young 
lamb  off  until  he  can  find  occasion,  as  he  says, 
to  meet  and  know  the  young  woman  well  enough 
to  speak  with  authority  upon  so  important  a  matter. 
There  seems  to  have  been  nothing  that  Lyford 
would  not  do  for  a  friend,  and  so  throwing  himself 
without  reserve  into  the  investigation,  he  informs 
himself  upon  the  girl  most  thoroughly  and  capably, 
leaving  no  aspect  of  her  eligibility  untested,  as  all 
too  lamentably  comes  out  in  her  future  state;  but 
for  the  time  Lyford  seeks  out  our  young  man, 
recommends  his  choice  with  warmth  as  "  fitted  "  in 
every  way  to  be  his  wife,  and  so  leaves  it.  The 
scoundrel  had  not  counted,  however,  upon  the  girl's 


SALEM    OF   THE    WITCHES       233 

reaction,  her  own  fundamental  integrity.  She  in- 
evitably tells  her  husband  and  he,  of  course,  bears 
the  monstrous  tale  to  the  heads  of  the  Plymouth 
Colony. 

Whether  the  truth  of  the  matter  was  hushed  up 
and  the  case  put  upon  some  political  difference,  or 
whatever,  Bradford  does  not  make  clear;  but  at 
any  rate  we  find  Lyford  leaving  Plymouth  imme- 
diately after,  followed  by  a  certain  number  of  loyal 
adherents.  The  seceders  retired  to  Nantasket,  and 
it  was  from  the  temporary  settlement  there  that 
the  Dorchester  company  chose  Roger  Conant  to 
take  charge  of  the  planting  and  fishing  at  Cape 
Ann ;  John  Oldham,  who  was  afterwards  murdered 
by  the  Indians  at  Block  Island,  to  superintend  the 
Indian  trade;  and  Lyford  to  officiate  as  minister. 
Possibly  the  charge  against  the  latter  was  not  un- 
derstood by  the  Patriarch  of  Dorchester,  at  least. 
Lyford's  subsequent  departure  from  Cape  Ann  to 
Virginia  split  up  and  nearly  wrecked  the  commun- 
ity, for  most  of  the  members  wished  to  follow  their 
pastor. 

Endecott's  installation,  as  governor  of  Conant's 
transplanted  colony,  was  after  the  arrival  at  Salem 
of  the  first  six  ships  that  came  to  swell  its  numbers 
under  the  leadership  of  Francis  Higginson,  of  St. 
John's  College,  Cambridge,  rector  of  a  church  in 


234     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAND 

Leicestershire,  who  had  been  deprived  of  his  living 
for  nonconformity.  He  came  out  to  Naumkeag  to 
found  the  church  in  the  new  community,  and  the 
more  gladly  as  he  hoped  by  this  change  to  reestab- 
lish his  infirm  health  and  prolong  his  usefulness. 
His  mildness  of  spirit  is  brought  out  in  the  picture 
recorded  of  him  calling  his  family  and  friends  to  the 
stern  of  the  vessel  as  it  quitted  the  old  country  and 
saying:  "We  do  not  go  to  Xew  England  as  Sepa- 
ratists from  the  Church  of  England,  though  we  can- 
not but  separate  from  the  corruption  of  it;  but  we 
go  to  practice  the  positive  part  of  church  reforma- 
tion and  propagate  the  gospel  in  America." 

This  was  to  mean  the  founding  of  the  first  com- 
pletely organized  Congregational  church  in  Amer- 
ica. It  marked  one  of  the  beginnings,  also,  of  local 
civic  government,  for  the  inhabitants  of  Salem  or- 
ganized their  church  and  chose  their  officers  by 
ballot. 

In  Governor  Bradford's  Letter  Book  is  pre- 
served a  letter  written  to  Bradford  by  Charles 
Gott,  of  Salem,  describing  the  ceremony  of  July  20, 
1029,  which  Mr.  Endecott  had  set  apart  for  the 
choice  of  a  pastor  and  teacher: 

"Their  choice  was  after  this  manner,  every  fit 
member  wrote  in  a  note  his  name  whom  the  Lord 
moved  him  to  think  was  fit  for  a  pastor,  and  so  like- 


REAR   OF    THE      OLD   WITCH    HOUSE 


AN  OLD  HOUSE  BUILT  IN  1684  SHOWING 
GABLES,  OVER-HANGING  STORY  AND  THE 
LEAN-TO  CHARACTERISTIC  OF  THE  FIRST 
PERIOD  OF  SALEM  ARCHITECTURE.  NOW 
THE  GROUNDS  OF  THE  ESSEX  INSTITUTE, 
SALEM. 


SALEM    OF    THE    WITCHES       23.5 

wise  whom  they  would  have  for  a  teacher;  so  the 
most  voice  was  for  Mr.  Skelton  to  be  pastor  and 
Mr.  Higgi(n)son  teacher;  and  they  accepting  the 
choice,  Mr.  Higgi(n)son  with  three  or  four  of  the 
gravest  members  of  the  church  laid  their  hands  on 
Mr.  Skelton  using  prayers  therewith.  This  being 
done,  then  there  was  an  imposition  of  hands  on  Mr. 
Higgi(n)son.  Then  there  was  proceeding  in 
election  of  elders  and  deacons,  but  they  were  only 
named  and  laying  on  of  hands  deferred  (prudent 
Forefathers!)  to  see  if  it  pleased  God  to  send  us 
more  able  men  over." 

The  assembly  at  which  this  was  done  has  been 
called  the  first  "  town  meeting "  in  Massachusetts. 
Its  action  formed  the  practical  cement  to  the  colony, 
the  scientific  union  of  church  and  state  which  was  to 
operate  for  the  groundwork  of  the  plant  whose 
shoots  were  in  so  short  a  time  to  extend  so  far  afield. 

These  were  days  of  great  mortality  amongst  the 
colonists.  It  has  been  estimated  that  from  April 
to  December,  of  the  year  following  its  settlement, 
one  hundred  of  the  people  of  Salem  died.  Higgin- 
son  was  among  the  number,  he  lived  to  preside  over 
his  flock  little  more  than  a  year  after  his  election, 
dying  on  the  sixth  of  August,  1630,  at  the  early  age 
of  forty-three.  Deprived  of  their  teacher  Roger 
Williams  was  invited  to  come  over  from  Plym- 


236     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

outh  and  settle  as  teacher  with  Mr.  Skelton,  and 
upon  the  latter's  death,  in  1634,  he  succeeded  as 
minister,  remaining  in  all  but  briefly,  owing  to  what 
Bradford  calls  his  "unsettled  judgemente"  which 
led  them  to  part  easily  with  him  at  Plymouth  and 
caused  the  magistrates  to  drive  him  from  Salem, 
whence  he  went  into  the  wilderness  to  become  the 
founder  of  the  state  of  Rhode  Island. 

We  are  to  think  of  Salem  in  these  early  days  as 
playing  New  York's  present  part,  in  acting  as  the 
great  clearing  house  for  immigration.  Extremely 
restricted  writhin  its  natural  boundaries,  the  outly- 
ing parts  of  the  town  separated  by  rivers  and  har- 
bours, there  was  literally  no  room  for  growth  and 
development  commensurate  with  the  influx  of  the 
English  Puritans,  who  now  began  to  pour  into  the 
country  driven  by  the  great  exodus,  of  which  the 
tentative  voyage  of  the  May  Flower  had  been  but 
premonitory.  Salem,  under  the  more  efficient  man- 
agement of  the  party  directing  affairs  in  England, 
became  the  logical  porte  d'entree,  superseding 
Plymouth  so  thoroughly  that  that  initial  settlement 
was  soon  swallowed  up  for  identity  in  the  easy  dom- 
ination of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 

Of  such  immigrants  as  arrived  in  the  first  ships, 
Salem  itself  retained  a  small  percentage.  When,  in 
1630,  Winthrop  came  to  supersede  Endecott  as  the 


SALEM   OF   THE    WITCHES       237 

governor  of  the  colony,  land  was  already  scarce 
and  his  followers  sought  new  places  for  their  set- 
tlements. Watertown,  Roxbury,  Dorchester  were 
among  the  first  towns  settled  by  them.  As  early  as 
1634  some  settlers  who  had  left  Salem  for  the  Aga- 
wam  River  began  a  new  town  under  the  name  of 
Ipswich.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  gradual  dis- 
integration, not  at  once  regarded,  however,  since  it 
was  in  this  same  year  that  Salem,  on  her  own  ac- 
count, and  regardless  of  the  different  members  of 
the  "  town,"  began  most  substantially  to  flourish  in 
the  way  in  which  she  was  to  achieve  so  magnifi- 
cently her  preeminence. 

In  1636  there  was  built  at  "Marble-harbour," 
the  Desire,  a  vessel  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  tons, 
commanded  by  Captain  Pierce  who  made  the  first 
almanack  published  in  America.  In  1640  a  ship  of 
three  hundred  tons  was  built  at  Salem,  and  within 
two  years  still  another  of  goodly  size  was  launched, 
with  such  success  that  Salem  had  no  rival  in  this 
commerce,  and  was  now  spoken  of  confidently  as 
the  proper  seat  of  government. 

On  the  other  hand  the  "  members  "  of  the  all  em- 
bracing Salem  began  to  flourish  in  their  own  ways 
and  with  that  independence  of  spirit  which  first 
brought  the  colonists  out  from  England,  began  to 
desire  their  own  government.  Wenham  was  the 


first  to  have  its  way;  it  split  off  from  the  parent 
stem  in  1643.  Manchester  became  a  town  in  1645, 
Marblehead,  on  the  strength  of  its  superiority  in 
the  fishing  industry,  in  1648,  Topsfield  in  1650,  and 
Beverly  in  1668. 

Salem  as  considered  within  its  present  bounds 
was  first  settled  upon  the  North  River.  Reduced 
to  its  simplest  terms  it  began  to  develop  its  extra- 
ordinary resources  as  a  port.  Just  how  the  port 
counted  in  those  roadless  days  can  be  made  out 
from  an  existing  letter  written,  in  1631,  by  Mr. 
Endecott  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  already  settled  in  Bos- 
ton upon  the  Shawmut  peninsula,  in  which  he  re- 
grets his  inability  to  be  present  at  the  Court,  to 
which  end,  he  says:  "I  put  to  sea  yesterday  and  was 
driven  back  again,  the  wind  being  stiff  against  us. 
And  there  being  no  canoe  or  boat  at  Saugus,"  he 
explains,  as  if  to  light  our  vision  of  the  case,  "  I 
must  have  been  constrained  to  go  to  the  Mystic  and 
thence  about  -to  Charlestown,  which  at  that  time, 
durst  not  be  so  bold,  my  body  being  at  present  in 
an  ill  condition  to  wade,  or  take  cold,  and  therefore 
I  desire  you  to  pardon  me."  And  for  the  hazards 
of  travel  by  land  and  sea  we  read  at  about  this  same 
time,  or  at  any  rate  shortly  after  the  settlement  of 
Boston,  of  an  adventurous  company  making  a  four 
days'  trip  from  Salem  to  see  the  new  plantation, 


SALEM    OF    THE    WITCHES       239 

and  upon  their  safe  arrival  home  again  they  fell 
upon  their  knees  and  thanked  God  for  preserv- 
ing them  through  the  peril  and  dangers  of  their 
journey! 

I  should  like  then,  to  take  my  loiterers  on  yachts, 
or  schooners,  in  the  old  way  through  one  of  the 
several  channels  noted  by  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  in 
his  directions  for  sailing  into  Salem,  according  to 
his  beautifully  clear  chart  of  the  harbour.  We 
should  then  get  the  true  impression  of  the  ancient 
city,  all  its  factors  depending  upon  their  relation  to 
the  sea,  and  its  arms,  which  hold  the  limited  area 
within  a  close  embrace.  We  could  still  land  from 
the  safe  and  convenient  harbour  at  the  old  Derby 
wharf,  the  centre  of  mercantile  activities  in  the  days 
when  Salem  was  one  of  the  leading  American  ports. 

Salem  could  be  approached  handsomely  on  both 
sides  of  the  narrow  peninsula,  either  from  the  har- 
bour direct  or  from  the  wide  North  River,  now  re- 
duced to  a  mere  waterway,  to  take  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  tide,  but  in  those  days  navigable  as  far 
inland  as  Peabody.  As  it  originally  developed  in 
relation  to  its  port,  Salem  residences  were  so 
planted  that  their  gardens  ran  down  to  the  water 
fronts,  while  Essex  Street  meandered  through  the 
rear  end  of  the  lots  which  fronted  on  the  rivers. 
An  arm  of  the  harbour  known  as  the  South  River, 


240     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

frequently  alluded  to  in  the  old  writings,  wandered 
out  towards  South  Salem,  part  of  its  ancient  bed 
now  covered  by  the  railway  station  and  tracks. 
Washington  Street  was  the  first  to  be  laid  out;  it 
was  four  rods  wide  and  formed  the  connection  be- 
tween the  "  ways  that  bordered  the  North  and 
South  Rivers." 

Down  to  1774  most  of  the  dwellings  were  of 
wood  and  a  few  of  the  very  oldest  are  still  stand- 
ing, presenting  such  odd  architectural  features  as 
the  overhanging  second  story  with  the  curious 
"  drops  "  depending  from  the  corner  posts,  and  the 
excessively  pointed  ends  brought  out  with  such  ex- 
travagance in  the  House  of  Seven  Gables,  so  called, 
on  the  water  front,  at  the  head  of  Turner  Street. 
This  house,  originally  built  at  some  most  remote 
date  for  Salem,  had  been  altered  and  modernized 
into  a  mere  semblance  of  its  past  or  for  that  matter 
its  present  form,  before  the  time  that  Hawthorne 
formed  his  slight  connection  with  it  as  a  visitor 
there  to  his  cousin,  Miss  Ingersoll.  It  has  been 
made  in  its  second  remodelling,  as  one  might  say, 
a  notorious  example  of  reconstituted  antiquity,  the 
architect  of  its  "reconstruction"  havingquite  let  him- 
self go  in  the  matter  of  tearing  out  and  building  up 
in  response  to  the  popular  demand  for  a  peg  upon 
which  to  hang  Hawthorne's  delightful  romance. 


SALEM   OF   THE    WITCHES       241 

The  irresistable  and  deliberate  mechancete  of 
Henry  James'  reference  to  "  the  shapeless  object 
by  the  waterside,"  visiting  Salem  in  his  most  per- 
verse and  wilfully  detached  mood,  has  yet  a  deli- 
cious reactionary  appeal  to  the  anarchist  in  us  all. 
Buried  as  they  are  in  his  notes  upon  America  re- 
visited, this  author's  little  liked  and  little  read,  yet 
so  subtle  and,  in  part,  so  true,  diatribe  against  the 
crudities  of  his  native  land  —  felt  by  him,  as  one 
senses,  with  the  poignancy  of  an  inalienable  native 
—  have  almost  the  quality  of  impressions  written 
for  his  eye  alone,  the  sharp,  remorseless  point  of 
his  irony  so  neatly  and  artfully  concealed  in  his 
famous  tournure  de  phrase,  of  which  the  general 
reader  makes  so  little.  '  The  weak,  vague  domi- 
ciliary presence  at  the  end  of  the  lane,"  he  so  won- 
derfully ventures,  "may  have  'been'  (in  our  poor 
parlance)  the  idea  of  the  admirable  book  .  .  .  but 
the  idea,  that  is  the  inner  force  of  the  admirable 
book,  so  vividly  forgets,  before  our  eyes,  any  such 
origin  or  reference,  '  cutting '  it  as  a  low  acquaint- 
ance and  outsoaring  the  shadow  of  its  night,  that 
the  connection  has  turned  a  somersault  into  space, 
repudiated  like  a  ladder  kicked  back  from  the  top 
of  a  wall." 

The  Hathaway  house,  better  known  from  its 
more  recent  use  as  "the  old  bakeshop,"  moved  up 


242     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

from  Washington  Street l  (where  it  was  about  to  be 
destroyed)  to  keep  company  with  the  Seven  Gables, 
probably  antedates  in  construction  the  latter,  and 
is  decidedly  Gothic  —  wooden  Gothic  of  true  seven- 
teenth or  even  sixteenth  century  spirit.  The  Nar- 
bonne  house,  on  Essex  Street,  built  before  1680,  is 
a  perfect  example  of  the  lean-to  type,  preserving 
still  the  little  shop  door,  once  so  characteristic  of  the 
old  town.  The  dwelling  situated  in  Broad  Street 
opposite  the  western  end  of  Burial  Hill  built  in 
1660,  by  John  Pickering,  has  lost  through  embel- 
lishment its  convincing  air  of  antiquity,  but  figures 
none  the  less  as  one  of  the  earliest  and  queerest  of 
Salem  houses.  It  was  the  birthplace  in  1745  of 
Timothy  Pickering,  the  same  who,  as  colonel  of  the 
First  Regiment  of  militia,  headed  the  assemblage  at 
North  Bridge,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution. 
This  house  is  now  occupied  by  the  tenth  generation 
in  direct  descent  from  the  founder. 

The  "  Witch  House  "  was  built  before  1635,  and 
old  pictures  of  it,  made  before  the  addition  of 
the  apothecary  shop,  which  now  defaces  its  once 
charming  front,  show  a  gambrel  roof  over  an  over- 
hanging second  story,  wide  chimneys  in  the  middle 
and  a  fine  old  garden,  opening  from  Essex  Street. 

The  Essex  Institute  preserves  a  sketch  of  .the 

1  On  the  site  of  the  Federal  Theatre. 


BENJAMIN    PICKMAN,    FROM    A    PORTRAIT 
IN    THE  ESSEX   INSTITUTE,    SALEM. 


BENJAMIN    PICKMAN    HOUSE,    IJ43- 
FROM    A    LITHOGRAPH    MADE   ABOUT 
1840-50. 

"PICTURES  OF  THE  DELIGHTFUL 
MANSION  SHOW  IT  TO  HAVE  BEEN 
SEATED  WITH  I. V  A  GENEROUS 

GARDEN." 


SALEM   OF   THE    WITCHES       243 

"  great  house "  built  by  Philip  English,  the  first 
great  shipping  merchant  of  the  colonies,  in  168.5 
and  torn  down  in  1833.  It  stood  upon  the  harbour, 
at  the  corner  of  Webb  Street  and  a  lane  named  after 
its  owner;  its  gables  formed  perfect  equilateral  tri- 
angles; the  roof  was  of  wooden  shingles,  with  dor- 
mers across  the  Webb  Street  side,  the  sixteen- 
paned  windows  built  flush  with  the  eaves,  and 
the  overhanging  second  story  ornamented  with  a 
row  of  "  drops "  or  globules  depending  from  the 
projection. 

Adjoining  the  Peabody  Museum,  in  Essex 
Street,  the  distinguished  gambrel  roof,  with  varied 
dormers,  of  a  house  built  by  Colonel  Benjamin 
Pickman  in  1743,  looks  out  over  the  vulgarity  of  the 
extinguishing  row  of  modern  shops,  planted  with 
singular  offence  straight  in  its  fine  old  face.  There 
is  scarcely  anything  left  but  the  roof  to  suggest 
a  gentleman's  residence  in  the  complete  despoliation 
of  this  pitiful  fragment;  yet  the  archway  between 
the  picture  gallery  and  the  museum  of  the  Essex 
Institute,  taken  from  this  house,  speaks  for  the 
quality  of  the  interior  woodwork.  Tradition  says 
that  the  Pickman  house  was  built  by  an  English 
housewright  and  the  interior  is  described  as  char- 
acteristic of  the  pre-Revolutionary  period.  Ben- 
jamin Pickman's  fortune  was  made  by  the  exporta- 


244     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

tion  of  codfish  to  the  West  Indies,  a  circumstance 
of  which  he  was  not  ashamed  and,  in  order  to  offset 
certain  aristocratic  pretentions  on  the  part  of  other 
members  of  his  family,  he  had  set  at  the  end  of  each 
stair  in  his  hallway  a  carved  and  gilded  effigy  of  the 
codfish  in  grateful  acknowledgement  of  the  source 
of  his  wealth. 

This  quaint  conceit,  throwing  a  humorous  light 
upon  the  character  of  Benjamin  Pickman,  of  course 
had  to  come  down  to  make  room  for  the  atrocities  in 
the  modern  "  improvements  "  to  the  house,  but  with 
the  exception  of  one  of  the  amusing  fish  preserved 
in  the  Essex  Institute,  the  whole  stairway  was  trans- 
planted to  the  house  of  a  descendant  of  Colonel 
Pickman,  in  Xewport,  Rhode  Island. 

Pictures  of  the  delightful  mansion  show  it  to 
have  been  seated  within  a  generous  garden,  and  to 
have  rejoiced  in  fine  old  doorways  and  handsome 
windows,  very  much  after  the  fashion  of  that  tragic 
wreck,  hemmed  in  by  polyglot  tenements,  in  Derby 
Street,  said  to  be  the  oldest  brick  house  now  stand- 
ing in  Salem,  which  brings  us  to  the  ancient  heart 
of  the  old  town,  and  upon  which,  leaning  heavily 
upon  romantic  imagination,  it  may  be  our  purpose 
to  reconstruct  its  glorious  past. 


CHAPTER   XI 
THE    "CAPTAIXS"'    SALEM 

IF  we  are  to  catch  up  with  the  remoter  Salem  in 
Derby  Street,  it  is  precisely  in  that  polyglot  atmos- 
phere that  the  air,  for  our  piercing,  blows  densest 
its  haze  of  modern  impediment.  Were  it  not  for 
the  old  Derby  house  itself,  standing,  though  in  the 
very  thick,  with  its  fine  air  of  detachment,  with- 
drawing its  distinguished  old  features,  with  all  the 
unruffled  composure  of  a  thoroughbred,  within  its 
fenced-off  and  gate-locked  enclosure,  one  would  be 
quite  at  a  loss  for  a  point  of  orientation.  Even 
more  convincing  than  the  old  thin  wharf,  named  for 
its  owner,  now  grass  grown  and  idle,  save  as  a  pro- 
visional dump  for  shunted  and  demode  "  electrics," 
the  house  stands  the  very  last  of  the  old  guard, 
casting  its  spell  over  the  quarter,  sounding  the  one 
vibrating  chord  to  place  the  old  pitch  of  neighbor- 
ing consonance. 

By  what  grace  of  unlooked-for  reverence  the  rich 
front  of  the  edifice  is  so  guarded  from  intrusion,  so 
that  appearances  at  least  are  most  beautifully  kept 
up,  one  is  only  too  thankfully  grateful  to  inquire. 

245 


246    A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

The  voisinage,  well  described  by  a  Boston  market 
boy  humorist  as  the  "  garlic  section,"  thus  decently 
kept  at  bay,  is  the  result  of  that  process  of  quick 
decay  familiar  to  all  American  cities ;  as  the  imports 
fell  off,  or  were  deflected  by  the  superior  attrac- 
tions of  deeper  harbours  to  accommodate  boats  of 
deeper  draught,  the  movement  of  the  town  was 
away  from  the  wharves  and  towards  the  more  con- 
centrated attractions  of  the  elaborated  "  common." 
If  it  is  a  choice  between  reconstituted  antiquity, 
to  which  Salem  is  giving  way  ever  so  little,  and  this 
passive  deterioration,  one  chooses,  for  purposes  of 
present  romance,  the  gentler  unresisting  state  which 
grips  with  far  more  emotion  the  willing  imagination 
than  those  patched  and  reconstructed  and  rehabili- 
tated "  specimens  "  of  past  grandeur,  supposed  to 
show  so  palpably  how  things  used  to  be.  Though 
its  fate  may  be  trembling  in  the  balance,  and  it  is 
indeed  a  "  shame  "  to  see  gentility  so  shabbily  re- 
duced, one  cannot  but  be  perversely  grateful  for 
having  happened  upon  the  expansive  relic  before 
its  picturesque  decay  had  been  arrested  by  some  in- 
terfering society  of  righteous,  clean-sweeping  busy- 
bodies  for  the  preservation  of  its  kind.  If  it  were 
to  be  simply  preservation  of  the  thing,  taken  "  as 
is,"  as  the  shopmen  say,  and  so  kept,  that  might  be 
endured ;  but  as  preservation  inevitably  implies  res- 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       247 

toration,  that  blackest  vice  of  our  sophisticated  age, 
I,  for  one,  say:  Heaven  forbid! 

The  Derby  house  has  the  effect  of  a  priceless  ob- 
ject standing  in  artless  opposition  to  its  degraded 
surroundings,  in  some  shabby  pawnshop  window. 
By  no  token  but  its  own  intrinsic  elegance  does  it 
advertise  its  worth  to  the  casual  passer-by.  To 
know  it  one  must  be  a  connoisseur.  For  such  an 
one  it  is  a  complete  and  beautiful  record  of  its  gen- 
eration ;  the  moment  his  eye  lights  upon  it,  it  picks 
itself  out  and  stands  prominently  relieved  against 
its  unworthy  background;  for  every  other  it  simply 
subsides  into  the  general  grubby  blur. 

Blessed  relief!  there  was  no  custodian  here  to 
direct  or  accompany  one's  comings  or  goings  —  yet 
was  access  easy,  by  dint  of  smiles  and  gestures, 
through  a  tortuous  back  way  of  shambling  out- 
houses, straight  into  the  panelled  "  best  room  "  of 
the  ancient  dwelling,  which  chanced  for  the  moment 
to  be  bedchamber,  living-room,  and  kitchen  of  a 
Polish  family,  in  intensive  occupation.  With 
scarcely  a  deprecatory  wave  of  the  hand  towards 
frothy  washtubs,  that  irrelevant  matter  in  colonial 
drawing-rooms  was  disposed  of,  as  between  women 
of  the  world,  and  one  was  allowed  to  prowl  about 
irresponsibly,  to  disassociate  the  undeniable  "  feat- 
ures "  of  the  simple  interior  from  the  pathetic 


248     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

squalor  of  its  present  plight;  to  penetrate  into  the 
common  hall  of  the  tenement,  to  view  the  con- 
served elegance  of  the  original  door  —  particularly 
to  be  treasured  because  of  its  oddity  in  having  but 
eight  panels  within  as  against  ten  without  —  to  in- 
spect on  one's  knees  the  exquisite  carving  of  the 
matchless  balusters,  in  sets  of  three  different 
models  to  each  step,  and  even  to  explore  the  upper 
stories,  providentially  tenantless,  and  very  little,  all 
things  considered,  destroyed. 

Perched  here  like  migratory  birds,  as  who  shall 
say,  there  was  no  sense  of  permanence  in  the  for- 
eign nest,  obviously  provisional  and  dependent 
upon  many  obscure  factors  of  which  the  getting  in 
hand  of  some  sort  of  intelligible  language  stuck  out 
prominently,  as  of  primary  importance. 

The  exclusive  front  they  had  not  encroached 
upon  at  all.  The  front  door  as  my  hostess  demon- 
strated was  securely  fastened,  by  some  power 
higher  than  hers,  but  making  one's  way  around 
again  through  the  earth-worn  back  way,  one  could 
enjoy  at  leisure  the  substantial  beauty  of  the  deep 
red  bricks,  the  shingled  gambrel  roof,  the  charming 
dormers,  and  the  characteristic  door  with  its  shut- 
tered screen  protectingly  folded  across  the  famous 
ten  panels. 

The  simile  of  the  migratory  birds,  with  which  the 


feUulvr.  J5»«C^/««sj;.X- 


THE  RICHARD  DERBY  HOUSE,  I~6l,  DERBY  STREET,  SALEM. 

"THE  HOUSE  STANDS  THE  VERY  LAST  OF  THE  OLD  GUARD,  CASTIXC 

ITS  SPELL  OVER  THE  QUARTER." 


DOORWAY   OK  THE  RICHARD    DKRIiY    HOUSE. 

"THE  ORIGINAL  DOOR— PARTICULARLY  TO  HE  TREASURED  HECAUSE  o\-  ITS 

ODDITY   IN    HAVING   BUT  EIGHT  PANELS   WITHIN,   AGAINST   TEN    WITHOUT.' 


THE   EXQUISITE   CARVING   OK   THE   BAI.l'STERS   AND    NFAVKI.l.    POST, 
RICHARD   DERBY    HOUSE. 


DERBY    WHARF    . 
AKTER   AN    ETCHING   BY    PHILIP    LITTLE. 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       249 

whole  quarter  upon  further  investigation  proved 
fairly  swarming,  was  to  recur  again  and  again  in 
wandering  through  this  section  of  the  town  —  is  it 
not  in  fact  the  history  of  the  whole  of  New  Eng- 
land? We  see  them  in  every  place  abandoned  by 
the  so-called  "  native,"  infesting  literally  the  land, 
adapting  themselves  to  the  native  leavings  and 
making  much  of  them.  The  New  Englander's 
policy  seemingly  was  always  merely  to  take  the 
cream  off  the  thing,  and  when  the  cream  failed  to 
abandon  the  possibilities  of  the  skimmed  milk  to 
whatever  foreigner  might  come  along  to  deal  with 
the  difficulties. 

Sometimes  the  figure  shifts  in  my  mind  to  the 
shape  of  the  English  sparrow,  imported  in  good 
faith  for  one  specific  purpose,  but  having  briefly 
achieved  it,  to  have  adapted  itself  with  a  staggering 
and  altogether  unlooked-for  thoroughness,  to  have 
set  about  the  business  of  breeding  and  perpetuation 
of  its  species  with  a  fecundity  undreamed  of  by  our 
native  song  birds,  so  ruthlessly  driven  from  their 
nesting  places,  and  in  which  these  blatant  intruders, 
twittering  or  jabbering  their  endless  jargon  perch 
and  plant  in  remorseless  possession  —  never  did  it 
seem  so  remorseless,  so  unregenerate,  so  witlessly 
irrelevant  as  in  this  otherwise  almost  perfect  native 
light  of  Salem. 


250     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Yet  one  may  reasonably  ask,  was  the  native  truly 
driven?  Did  he  not  rather  cede  his  rights,  or  even 
vacate  before  the  advent  of  the  despised  foreigner, 
who  to  take  up  the  figure,  found  last  year's  nests 
empty,  resistless  to  what  disproportionate  stretch- 
ings and  crowdings  an  alien  race  might  subject 
them?  Having  themselves  been  the  fruition  of  one 
such  experiment,  in  the  sense  in  which  these  old 
houses  may  be  said  to  have  crowded  off  the  face  of 
the  earth  the  aboriginal  wigwams;  they  were  now, 
by  a  far  stranger  process  to  decline,  to  go  to  seed  in 
the  fantastic  disguise  of  the  polyglot  air,  to  have 
stemmed  the  tide  of  demolition  only  to  be  caught 
in  this  distracting  whirlpool,  leading  who  shall  say 
whither  ? 

The  Derby  house,  in  fine,  marks  the  first  com- 
pleted tour  in  the  spiral  of  Salem's  commercial 
greatness.  It  was  built  by  Richard  Derby,  one  of 
the  pioneer  American  merchants,  who  was  born  in 
Salem  in  1712.  His  father,  the  founder  of  the 
family  in  this  country,  had  come  to  Salem  within 
a  year  of  his  more  illustrious  contemporary,  Philip 
English  (the  same  who  built  the  "great  house" 
on  Essex  Street  upon  the  harbour)  both  engaging 
in  the  maritime  trade. 

If  the  all  but  detached  scraps  of  land,  as  well  as 
the  islands,  upon  which  the  Salem  "  town "  was 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       2,51 

scattered  within  its  early  boundaries,  found  their 
common  means  of  intercommunication  to  be  the 
water  horses,  of  which  Higginson  wrote,  we  should 
picture  the  water  in  those  days  as  peopled  rather 
than  the  land.  In  fact  to  get  the  true  joy  of  New 
England  we  have  constantly  to  reverse  the  usual 
landsman's  standpoint.  If  Provincetown  is  for  us 
a  jumping-off  place,  it  was  for  our  forefathers  most 
valuably  a  jumping-on  place;  and  so  the  settle- 
ments at  first  but  fringed  the  indented  coast  of  New 
England,  everything  really  valuable  coming  for 
them  out  of  the  sea,  or  across  it,  at  innumerable 
tangents.  An  old  writer  speaks  charmingly  of  the 
rude  gondolas  of  the  settlers  coursing  between  the 
varied  centres  and  representing  for  a  simple  agra- 
rian folk  that  same  indwelling  maritime  spirit 
which  gradually  transformed  the  rude  fishermen  of 
the  Adriatic  lagoons  into  merchant  princes  trading 
with  the  Eastern  Empire,  as  the  merchants  of 
Salem  were  destined  to  trade  with  the  farthest 
Orient. 

Salem's  trade  began  with  the  West  Indies  in  1670, 
the  year  that  Philip  English  arrived,  from  the  Isle 
of  Jersey,  to  become  at  once  the  commanding  figure 
in  the  seafaring  history  of  his  time.  The  staple  ex- 
port of  the  first  years  was  dried  cod  —  thus  the 
basis  of  Salem's  foreign  trade  was  like  that  of 


252     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Venice,  the  furnishing  of  salt  fish  to  Catholic  coun- 
tries —  a  trade  which,  one  thing  leading  to  another, 
developed  into  the  import  of  silks  and  spices  from 
the  farthest  reaches  of  the  Orient. 

The  conditions  of  the  time  presented  every  ob- 
stacle to  the  dashing  young  mariners  it  engendered. 
Navigation  as  a  science  was  but  in  its  infancy, 
ships  were  small  and  unseaworthy,  charts  few  and 
primitive ;  added  to  the  common  dangers  of  the  sea 
piracy,  in  its  most  flagrant  form,  flourished  on  the 
high  seas,  while  the  frequent  wars  made  the  ships 
of  almost  any  nation  the  rightful  prey  of  an  en- 
emy's men-of-war.  England's  Acts  of  Trade  placed 
heavy  restrictions  upon  commerce  which  was  car- 
ried on  at  last  in  defiance  of  the  rules  of  war  and  at 
untold  hazards  and  risks.  On  land  there  were  the 
hostile  Indians  to  be  dealt  with,  added  to  all  of 
which  was  the  uncanny  complication  of  the  witch- 
craft delusion,  imported  in  all  its  savagery  from 
the  mother  country,  and  then  at  full-tide. 

The  cod  disposed  of  the  vessels  returned  laden 
with  sugar  and  molasses,  of  which  the  growing 
superfluity  led  to  the  manufacture  of  rum,  in 
Salem,  and  thus  was  added  another  product  for  ex- 
portation. We  read  of  ships  taking  cargoes  of  fish, 
lumber,  and  rum  from  Salem  to  Cadiz;  loading 
mules  at  Tangiers  for  the  West  Indies,  and  return- 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       2.53 

ing  to  Salem  with  sugar  and  molasses.  From  such 
simple  commerce  was  the  seaport  of  Salem  built 
upon,  were  the  first  fortunes  derived,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  we  find  the  scattered 
wilderness  settlement  concentrated  along  the  har- 
bour over  which  the  spacious  mansions  of  the  mer- 
chants, and  their  ware  and  counting  houses,  looked 
as  the  scene  of  their  labours,  their  adventures,  and 
their  hopes. 

Winter  Island,  in  the  harbour,  once  detached  but 
now  connected  with  the  peninsula,  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  headquarters  for  the  fishing  stage, 
and  undoubtedly  the  first  traders  to  foreign  parts 
set  sail  from  the  old  wharves  about  there.  As  early 
as  1643  we  find  Salem  vessels  in  communication 
with  the  Barbadoes  and  the  Leeward  Islands  of  the 
West  Indies,  and  with  such  success  that  in  1664 
Josselyn  was  able  to  write  of  Salem :  "In  this  town 
are  some  very  rich  merchants." 

The  type  of  vessel  in  these  early  times  at  this 
port  was  known  as  the  "ketch,"  a  strongly  built, 
two-master  of  quaint  appearance  in  so  much  as  the 
mainmast  was  shorter  than  the  foremast,  and  the 
foremast  had  square  sails,  while  the  mainmast  had 
a  fore  and  aft  sail.  The  foundation  of  Salem's  re- 
markable commercial  prosperity  was  laid  by 
ketches  of  this  description,  of  only  twenty  to  forty 


tons'  burden  and  carrying  from  four  to  six  men. 
These  went  to  Barbadoes,  London,  Fayal,  An- 
tigua, and  carried  on  some  coastwise  trade  with 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia. 

Of  such  a  type  was  the  ketch  Speedwell  com- 
manded by  Philip  English  in  1676.  Yet  he  had  so 
flourished  in  the  first  ten  years  after  his  settling  in 
Salem  that  he  was  able  to  build  his  fine  house,  fin- 
ished in  1683,  and  clearly  from  all  accounts  in  its 
day  quite  the  feature  of  the  town.  When  it  was 
torn  down  a  secret  chamber  was  discovered  in  the 
garret,  supposed  to  have  been  built  after  the  subsi- 
dence of  the  witchcraft  episode  as  a  place  of  tem- 
porary retreat  in  case  of  a  relapse  of  that  strange 
malady.  As  it  stood  long  idle  and  deserted,  until 
it  was  torn  down  in  1833,  it  may  well  have  repre- 
sented a  haunted  house  since  both  its  master  and 
mistress  had  in  the  old  days  been  cried  against  as 
witches  and  obliged  to  flee  the  town  for  a  time. 

At  this  time  Philip  English  was  at  the  height  of  his 
prosperity,  which  made  his  case  the  more  conspicu- 
ous. He  owned  a  wharf  and  warehouse  on  the  Neck, 
twenty-one  vessels,  and  fourteen  buildings  in  the 
town,  and  shortly  after  he  was  permitted  to  return 
to  Salem  he  sent  ketches  to  Newfoundland,  Cape 
Sable,  or  Arcadia  to  fish,  shipping  the  products  of 
the  season's  activity  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  Spain. 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       255 

At  about  the  time  of  his  retirement  from  trade, 
we  find  Kichard  Derby  appearing  in  the  records  as 
master  of  the  "  slope  Hanger,  on  a  voige  to  Cadiz 
and  Malaga  "  with  a  cargo  of  fish  to  be  exchanged 
for  fruit,  oil,  and  handkerchiefs;  later  there  is 
recorded  a  trip  to  St.  Martin's,  in  the  French  West 
Indies,  as  commander  of  the  "  skoner  Hanger." 
The  schooner  was  a  Gloucester  invention,  the  first 
of  that  craft  having  been  built  and  named  in  that 
later  port  in  1713,  and  first  appears  in  the  Salem 
category  about  the  year  17*20. 

Trading  vessels  now  .ranged  from  ketches  of 
about  fifty  tons  to  schooners  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  and  Mr.  Derby's  cargoes  consisted  of  fish 
and  lumber  largely.  His  loaded  vessels  would  clear 
for  Dominica  or  one  of  the  Windward  Islands  of 
the  British  West  Indies,  and  sail  through  the  whole 
archipelago  in  quest  of  the  most  favourable  mart. 
The  exchange  was  made  in  the  inevitable  sugar  and 
molasses,  cotton,  rum,  claret,  or  in  rice,  and  naval 
stores  from  Carolina. 

In  1755  there  was  granted  to  Richard  Derby  and 
his  heirs  the  upland,  beach,  and  flats  at  Palmer's 
Head,  on  Winter  Island  in  Salem  Harbour,  for  a 
wharf  and  warehouse,  for  a  term  of  one  thousand 
years  at  one  shilling  a  year;  but  he  seems  to  have 
made  no  use  of  the  grant  and  soon  after  be- 


256     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

gan  the  construction  of  Derby  wharf,  from  which, 
during  the  next  fifty  years,  himself  and  his  de- 
scendants sent  vessels  all  over  the  world.  In  1761, 
having  laid  up  quite  a  fortune,  retired  from  active 
life  upon  the  sea,  and  established  himself  in  Salem 
as  a  merchant  and  shipowner,  Richard  Derby  built 
the  old  house ;  built  it,  it  was  said,  for  his  son  Elias 
Hasket  Derby,  then  a  promising  youth  of  twenty- 
two  years. 

It  was  for  Elias  Hasket  Derby  and  his  genera- 
tion to  build  up  to  its  greatest  magnificence  the 
prosperity  merely  outlined  by  their  rugged  progeni- 
tors. At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
the  younger  Derby  was  already  a  rich  man,  own- 
ing seven  vessels  in  the  West  Indian  trade.  This 
trade,  it  is  true,  had  been  built  up  largely  through 
feeding  and  supporting  the  French  colonies  during 
the  Seven  Years'  War  between  Great  Britain  and 
France.  This  for  some  reason  was  not  considered 
treasonable  (Richard  Derby  was  himself  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  Council ) ,  but  was  accepted  as 
a  sort  of  sporting  enterprise  in  which  great  risks 
were  run  for  enormous  gains.  This  element  of  risk 
lent  to  the  ancient  commerce  an  epic  quality  that 
went  far  to  mitigate  its  irregularities. 

The  Revolution  indirectly  gave  the  maritime 
trade  of  Salem  its  decided  impetus.  At  the  out- 


PORTRAIT   OF   ELIAS    BASKET   DERBY   BY    JAMES    FROTHINGHAM. 
"IT  WAS  FOR  ELIAS   HASKET  DERBY   AND   HIS  GENERATION   TO  BUILD   UP 
TO  ITS  GREATEST  MAGNIFICENCE  THE  PROSPERITY   MERELY  OUTLINED 
BY   THEIR   RUGGED    PROGENITORS." 


THE  Mount  Vcrnon  OF  SALEM. 

OWNED  BY  ELIAS   HASKET  DERBY 

AND  COMMANDED  BY   HIS   SON, 

CAPTAIN   DERBY,    I  "98. 

FROM   A   WATER  COLOUR  BY  CORNE, 

MARINE  ROOM,  PEABODY   MUSEUM, 

SALEM. 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       257 

break  of  hostilities  Elias  Hasket  Derby  wholly 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  colonists,  and  under  his 
leadership  Salem  furnished  and  equipped  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  privateers,  carrying  2,000  guns 
and  manned  by  over  6,000  men  —  a  force  equal  to 
the  population  of  the  town.  At  the  close  of  the  war 
Salem  found  herself  possessed  of  a  swift-sailing 
fleet,  too  large  for  profitable  use  in  the  coastwise 
trade  or  for  the  short  voyages  hitherto  undertaken 
by  her  merchantmen,  and  a  larger  field  seemed  to 
open  before  her.  Young  men  fresh  from  the  serv- 
ice were  eager  to  embark  in  what  promised  glitter- 
ing enterprise. 

The  younger  Derby  had  boundless  imagination 
and  limitless  ambition,  and  his  initiative  opened  the 
commerce  from  New  England  to  the  famous  ports 
of  the  East,  where,  while  the  names  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  were  hardly  known,  Salem  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  greatest  city  in  America.  For  a 
time  Derby  continued  to  send  ships  to  the  tried  field 
in  the  West  Indies,  but  a  desire  to  pit  his  strength 
against  that  of  England,  France,  and  Holland  who 
until  now  had  controlled  the  commerce  of  the  Far 
East,  led  him,  in  the  year  1784,  to  send  the  barque 
Light  Horse  to  Petrograd  with  a  cargo  of  sugar;  a 
few  months  later  he  despatched  his  famous  ship 
Grand  Turk  of  three  hundred  tons,  with  Jonathan 


258     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Ingersoll,  captain,  on  the  first  voyage  made  by  an 
American  vessel  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  a  ven- 
ture, which  though  not  in  itself  successful,  gave 
Derby  an  insight  into  the  needs  and  conditions  of 
trade  in  India,  and  a  year  later  he  cleared  the  same 
vessel  with  Ebenezer  West  as  captain,  for  a  more 
extended  voyage,  one  of  the  first  made  by  an 
American  craft  to  the  Isle  of  France,  India,  and 
China.  West  was  out  for  nineteen  months  and 
returned  with  a  famous  cargo  of  tea,  silks,  and 
nankeens. 

As  may  be  imagined,  under  such  conditions  the 
port  of  Salem  began  to  assume  extraordinary 
character.  Wharves  began  reaching  far  out  into 
the  harbour,  warehouses  began  to  spring  up  by  the 
water  front,  counting  houses  along  the  wharves, 
and  the  substantial  homes  of  the  merchant  owners 
stood  back  within  spacious  gardens  on  the  north 
side  of  Derby  Street,  overlooking  the  scene  of 
bustle  and  activity. 

In  the  absence  of  railroads  the  streets  were  alive 
with  vehicles,  loaded  with  goods  for  all  parts  of  the 
country,  brought  from  lands  lying  in  the  remotest 
quarters  of  the  globe.  Salem  merchants  almost 
monopolized  the  commerce  of  the  East  —  her  ware- 
houses were  stocked  with  silks  from  India,  tea  from 
China,  pepper  from  Sumatra,  gum  copal  from  Zan- 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       259 

zibar,  spices  from  Batavia,  cotton  from  Bombay, 
iron,  duck,  and  hemp  from  Gottenburg  and  Petro- 
grad,  wines  from  Madeira.  Salem,  the  clearing 
house  for  immigration,  had  become  the  distributing 
centre  for  imports  for  the  entire  country. 

If  there  could  be  a  doubt  as  to  Salem's  commer- 
cial importance  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, from  the  end  of  the  Revolution  to  the  em- 
bargo which  preceded  the  War  of  1812,  when  she 
was  at  the  height  of  her  prestige  as  a  port,  there  is 
always  the  informal  strong  room  of  the  adjacent 
Custom  House  to  speak  in  figures  upon  the  busi- 
ness done  at  this  port.  There  piles  upon  piles  of 
dusty  records,  tied  together  with  the  traditional 
ribbons  of  the  period,  may  be  consulted  for  verifi- 
cation, while  the  entry  books  kept  in  the  ornamental 
script  of  the  time  present  the  sums  total  of  the  reve- 
nue here  received  in  convenient  form. 

Here  are  the  records  of  the  returns  from  the 
secret  voyage  made  by  Captain  Jonathan  Carnes  to 
Sumatra  in  1795  in  search  of  pepper.  He  sailed 
under  orders  from  Jonathan  Peele,  a  merchant,  to 
whom  he  had  confided  his  knowledge  that  wild 
pepper  was  obtainable  along  the  northwest  coast 
of  Sumatra.  The  ship  was  the  Rajah,  loaded  with 
brandy,  gin,  iron,  tobacco,  and  dried  fish  to  be 
bartered  for  the  pepper,  and  Captain  Carnes  was 


260    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  EXGLAXD 

absent  from  Salem  eighteen  months,  during  which 
no  one  had  news  of  his  vessel  until  she  sailed  into 
port  with  her  cargo  of  wild  pepper  in  bulk  which, 
according  to  the  books  and  the  well-preserved 
story,  yielded  a  profit  of  seven  hundred  per  cent. 

Jonathan  Carnes  made  a  second  trip  in  the  Rajah 
and  returned  from  Sumatra  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  pounds  of  pepper  before  the  rival 
captains  ran  him  down  and  discovered  his  secret. 
After  the  source  of  the  precious  condiment  was 
found  out  pepper  became  one  of  the  most  profit- 
able of  Salem's  commodities  and  the  Custom 
House  records  show  that  down  to  the  year  1845 
about  two  hundred  vessels  so  laden  returned  from 
the  port  of  Sumatra. 

While  the  wharves  were  crowded  with  vessels 
discharging  cargoes  gathered  from  remote  places 
or  loading  the  native  products  for  another  venture 
across  the  seas,  the  town  was  busily  keeping  pace 
with  the  details  of  enterprise.  The  vicinity  of  the 
harbour  presented  the  quaint  vision  of  sail  lofts, 
ship  chandlers'  shops,  and  the  swinging  quadrants 
before  the  locations  of  the  nautical  instrument 
makers.  Taverns,  selling  the  good  old  New  Eng- 
land rum,  were  full  of  the  teamsters  from  inland 
and  of  sailors  lounging  about  restlessly  between 
voyages.  The  shops  along  Derby  Street  began  to 


OLD    WHARFS,    SALEM    . 
FROM   AN   ETCHING  BY  PHILIP   LITTLE. 


COASTERS.  SALEM  HARHOl'R  . 
FROM  AX  ETCHING  BY  PHILIP 
LITTLE. 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       261 

take  on  a  slightly  foreign  air  and  an  occasional  par- 
rot or  monkey  screeching  at  the  doors  lent  a  pe- 
culiar zest  to  the  minor  retail  trade. 

Elias  Hasket  Derby,  William  Gray,  and  Joseph 
Peahody  were  the  three  most  prominent  merchants 
of  the  period  of  greatest  activity;  between  them 
they  owned  the  larger  part  of  the  shipping  of 
Salem.  Each  of  them  during  his  life  accumulated  a 
great  property.  In  1807  Mr.  Gray  owned  fifteen 
ships,  seven  barques,  thirteen  brigs,  and  one 
schooner  which  equalled  about  one  fourth  of  the 
shipping  of  Salem.  During  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  Joseph  Peabody  built  and 
owned  eighty-three  ships  which  he  freighted  him- 
self and  sent  to  the  various  ports  of  Europe,  Cal- 
cutta, Sumatra,  and  Petrograd.  He  employed  all 
told  about  7,000  seamen  and  advanced  to  the  rank 
of  captain  or  master  many  who  had  entered  his 
service  as  boys. 

With  the  revival  of  the  American  shipping  in- 
dustry it  is  interesting  to  note  an  advertisement 
published  in  the  Salem  Gazette  of  November  23, 
1798,  urging  the  people  to  show  their  patriotism 
and  help  in  the  building  of  a  ship  to  defend  the 
country.  The  nation  appeared  to  be  on  the  eve  of 
a  war  with  France  and  was  without  a  navy  and 
congress  had  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  presi- 


262     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

dent  to  accept  such  vessels  as  citizens  might  huild 
for  the  national  service,  to  be  paid  for  in  six  per  cent 
stock. 

Elias  Hasket  Derby  and  William  Gray  each 
subscribed  $10,000,  William  Orne  and  John  Norris 
$5,000  each,  and  in  a  short  time  the  full  sum  neces- 
sary was  raised.  The  population  of  Salem  at  the 
time  was  about  9,500  and  the  total  cost  of  the  frig- 
ate Essex,  which  the  town  built  for  the  nation  in 
1799,  was  $95,000,  so  that  its  cost  averaged  for  the 
little  community  $10  a  head.  She  was  built  on 
Winter  Island  and  Enos  Briggs,  who  had  built 
many  ships  for  Mr.  Derby,  was  the  builder.  It  was 
he  also  who  inserted  the  quaint  advertisement  in  the 
Gazette  calling  upon  every  man  in  the  possession 
of  a  white  oak  tree  to  hurry  the  timber  down  to 
Salem.  Four  trees  were  asked  for  the  keel,  which 
was  to  measure  one  hundred  and  forty-six  feet 
in  length  and  hew  sixteen  inches  square.  The 
Essex  proved  the  fastest  ship  in  the  navy  and 
captured  property  to  the  amount  of  two  million 
dollars.  Admiral  Farragut  served  on  the  Essex 
as  midshipman. 

A  stone's  throw  from  the  railway  station,  in  an 
antiquated  market  place,  stands  the  old  Town  Hall 
and  Market  House  of  Salem,  built  in  1816.  The 
hall  was  used  for  Town  Meeting  until  Salem  was 


THE    "CAPTAINS*'     SALEM       263 

incorporated  as  a  city,  in  1836,  and  was  first  opened 
to  the  public  July  8,  1817,  when  President  Monroe 
visited  the  town.  The  land  on  which  the  building 
stands  was  given  to  the  city  by  the  heirs  of  the 
Derby  estate  for  a  permanent  market  and  the 
locality  was  called  Derby  Square. 

On  this  site  stood  for  a  brief  period  the  finest 
house  that  Salem  ever  knew,  the  famous  mansion 
erected  by  Elias  Hasket  Derby  at  the  close  of  his 
life,  when  he  was  counted  the  richest  man  in  Amer- 
ica. The  house,  of  which  no  record  fails  to  mention 
its  amazing  cost,  seems  to  have  marked  an  epoch  in 
Salem.  It  marked  the  "arrived"  rich  man  —  the 
man  of  means,  the  man  of  leisure,  the  man  who 
sent  his  sons  to  college,  and  who,  if  he  sent  them  to 
sea  at  all,  did  so  as  captain  or  supercargo  of  one  of 
his  own  ships,  and  in  the  care  of  a  "  nurse  "  -  as  the 
bluff  sailors  rudely  called  the  experienced  mariner 
who  accompanied  the  voyage  and  who  was  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  in  command. 

Felt's  Annals  of  Salem  (second  edition)  con- 
tains a  picture  of  the  Derby  house  and  the  plans  of 
the  mansion  are  preserved  in  the  collections  of  the 
Essex  Institute.  These  were  made  by  Salem's  chief 
architect  and  wood  carver,  Samuel  Mclntire,  in  the 
flower  of  his  life;  they  show  a  three-story  dwelling, 
of  the  square  type,  built  of  wood,  with  ornate 


264     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

doorway,  columns,  fan  and  side  lights,  pilasters, 
charming  windows,  carved  cornice,  festooned  frieze, 
and  a  railed  roof  surmounted  by  a  cupola.  The 
house  faced  the  water  and  the  gardens,  sloping 
down  to  the  South  River,  were  beautifully  terraced 
and  planned  by  George  Heussler,  an  Alsatian,  the 
first  landscape  gardener  of  the  locality.  He  had 
come  out  to  Newburyport  from  Haarlem,  in  1780, 
and  began  to  work  in  the  employ  of  John  Tracy  of 
that  town. 

Derby  at  the  time  of  the  building  of  his  grand 
house  was  living  on  Washington  Street,  whence  he 
moved  into  the  new  house  in  1799,  and  died  a  few 
months  later.  His  heirs  finding  the  maintenance  of 
such  a  place  beyond  their  means,  the  house  was 
closed,  and,  since  no  purchaser  could  be  found  for 
it,  Mclntire,  who  had  put  some  of  the  best  of  his 
creative  work  into  it,  persuaded  Captain  Cook, 
whose  house  on  Federal  Street  was  in  process  of 
erection,  to  buy  the  lovely  gateposts  and  much  of 
the  interior  woodwork  to  be  built  into  his  simpler 
dwelling,  where  they  may  still  be  admired.  Finally, 
in  1814,  the  house  was  torn  down  and  the  site  pre- 
sented to  the  town. 

As  an  interesting  expression  of  a  sort  of  con- 
sciousness of  something  of  their  own  power  and  im- 
portance the  captains  founded,  in  the  year  1799,  the 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       265 

Salem  East  India  Marine  Society,  an  organization 
in  which  membership  was  restricted  to  masters  or 
commanders,  factors  or  supercargoes  of  any  Salem 
vessel,  who  had  navigated  the  seas  near  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  or  Cape  Horn.  The  objects  were  three- 
fold: first,  to  assist  widows  and  children  of  de- 
ceased members ;  second,  to  collect  facts  and  obser- 
vations tending  to  the  improvement  and  security 
of  navigation;  and  third,  to  form  a  museum  of 
natural  and  artificial  curiosities,  particularly  such  as 
were  found  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
Cape  Horn.  At  about  this  time  also  the  mariners 
of  Salem  began  to  write  detailed  journals  of  their 
voyages  to  be  deposited  with  this  society  —  but  now 
in  the  safe  keeping  of  the  Essex  Institute.  These 
thick  manuscript  volumes,  frequently  amplified  log 
books,  written  after  the  captains  had  returned  to 
port,  form  an  unique  treasure  for  Salem,  being  the 
autographic  history  at  first  hand  of  one  of  the  most 
adventurous  chapters  of  American  achievements; 
to  them  have  been  added,  as  the  commerce  declined, 
the  original  logs  and  journals  of  the  voyages, 
proudly  contributed  by  the  descendants  of  the 
mariners. 

It  is  rather  interesting  to  reflect  that  the  present 
dignified  structure,  containing  the  amplified  col- 
lections of  the  East  India  Marine  Society,  was 


266     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

erected  in  1824,  when  the  population  of  Salem 
numbered  but  12,000  souls.  From  the  foundation 
of  the  society  until  the  collections  were  given  in 
charge  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  in  1867,  three 
hundred  and  fifty  masters  and  supercargoes  of 
Salem  had  qualified  for  membership. 

While  the  whole  of  the  Peabody  Museum  is 
vastly  creditable  to  its  native  air,  containing  as  it 
does  many  unique  features,  it  is  the  Marine  Room 
that  throws  most  light  upon  its  most  appealing 
period.  On  one  side  of  the  room  we  have  the  por- 
traits of  the  captains  and  prominent  shipowners 
and  merchants,  on  the  other  side  the  portraits  of 
their  ships,  this  latter  forming  an  unique  and  price- 
less collection.  Most  of  the  ships  were  painted  in 
foreign  ports,  many  bear  the  signature  of  Anton 
Roux,  of  Marseilles,  others  were  painted  at  Naples, 
and  these  are  spirited  sketches  quite  in  sympathy 
with  the  vigour  and  enterprise  of  the  time. 

In  a  case  in  the  centre  of  the  room  are  the  few 
treasures  presented  by  Captain  Jonathan  Carnes 
on  the  return  from  one  of  his  several  voyages  to 
Sumatra,  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  collec- 
tions. On  the  wall  hangs  a  most  thrilling  por- 
trait of  Captain  John  Carnes,  an  earlier  figure  in 
Salem  life,  standing,  spyglass  in  hand,  upon  the 
quarter-deck,  against  a  brilliant  passage  of  sky 


CAPTAIN   JOHN   CARNES. 

MARINE  ROOM,   PEABODY    MUSEUM,    SALEM. 


CAPTAIN    BENJAMIN    CARPENTER, 

MARINE  ROOM,   PEABODY    MUSEUM,    SALEM. 


CAPTAIN    BENJAMIN    CROWNINSHIELD,    COMMANDER    OF    Cleopatra's    Barge 

ON   HER   MEDITERRANEAN   VOYAGE    IN    l8l". 

FROM  A  PASTEL  COPY  OF  A  MINIATURE,  MARINE  ROOM,  PEABODY  MUSEUM,  SAI.EM 


Cleopatra's  Barge,  BUILT  BY 

RETIRE   BECKET   FOR   CAPTAIN 
GEORGE  CROWNINSHIELD. 
FROM    A    WATER   COLOUR   BY 
ANTOINE  VITTALUGA,  GENOA, 
l8l/.      MARINE   ROOM, 
PEABODY   MUSEUM,   SALEM. 


LETTER  OF  MARQUE  BRIG  Grand  Turk,  1815. 

FROM   A    WATER   COLOUR   BY   ANTON   ROUX. 
MARINE    ROOM,    PEABODY    MUSEUM,    SALEM. 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       267 

and  sea  upon  which  sail  two  full-rigged  ships  flying 
the  American  colours. 

The  portrait  of  Elias  Hasket  Derby,  by  James 
Frothingham,  shows  a  vigorous  type  of  merchant, 
seated  before  his  table,  a  chart  spread  before  him 
and  folded  close  at  hand  the  sailing  papers  relative 
to  the  Grand  Turk,  which  vessel  may  be  seen  pic- 
tured upon  the  wall  beside  his  chair.  This  it  will 
be  remembered  was  the  first  American  vessel  to  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Across  the  room  is  a  de- 
lightful water  colour  of  the  Mount  Vernon  of 
Salem,  commanded  by  Elias,  Jr.,  on  the  last  enter- 
prise engaged  in  by  his  illustrious  father,  that  of 
sending  a  cargo  of  sugar  and  coffee  to  the  Med- 
iterranean ports,  and  firing  a  broadside  upon  a 
fleet  of  French  and  Algerian  pirates  which  had 
attempted  to  block  her  path. 

This  picture  was  the  work  of  a  Michele  Corne, 
of  Naples,  described  in  William  Bentley's  Diary 
as  "an  Italian  painter  in  the  town,  introduced  by 
Mr.  Derby."  He  instructed  the  children  of  Salem 
in  drawing,  and  Mr.  Bentley  who  seems  to  have 
been  quite  an  amateur  in  painting  and  the  arts  em- 
ployed him  in  the  restoration  of  some  of  the  old 
portraits  in  the  town,  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
Essex  Institute. 

Mr.  Bentley  also  describes  the  painter's  efforts 


268     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

to  introduce  the  tomato  to  the  American  palate 
hut  adds  that  "  He  finds  it  difficult  to  persuade  us 
even  to  taste  of  it,  after  all  his  praise  of  it." 

Captain  Benjamin  Carpenter,  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  society,  is  presented  standing  with  one 
hand  upon  a  globe,  in  a  commanding  attitude  which 
expresses  his  complete  mastery  of  navigation  and  a 
dauntless  spirit  of  adventure.  He  commanded  the 
first  vessel  in  the  Revolution  which  carried  back  to 
England  captured  British  officers,  concluding  a 
difficult  examination  by  the  lords  of  the  admiralty 
with  creditable  cleverness.  His  log  of  the  Hercules, 
dated  1792,  is  a  model  of  its  type,  elaborately  il- 
lustrated with  pen  drawings  of  harbours,  landfalls, 
and  ports,  made  by  its  author. 

As  an  instance  of  the  growing  luxury  of  the 
Salem  merchants  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  Marine  Room  preserves  two  water 
colour  paintings  of  the  famous  pleasure  yacht 
Cleopatra's  Barge,  the  plaything  of  its  owner,  the 
eccentric  George  Crowninshield,  launched  in  Salem 
Harbour  in  the  winter  of  1816.  Intended  as  the 
future  residence  of  its  master,  this  yacht,  the  first 
of  its  kind,  represented  an  expenditure  of  more 
than  one  half  the  total  cost  of  Elias  Hasket  Derby's 
famous  house.  It  was  built  by  Retire  Becket,  an 
expert  shipwright  of  Salem  in  his  yard  at  the  lower 


THE    "CAPTAINS"     SALEM       269 

end  of  Derby  Street,  and  was  constructed  and  ap- 
pointed throughout  in  a  manner  considered  truly 
magnificent  in  its  time.  It  had  an  adventurous 
history  and  at  one  time  was  implicated  in  a  sup- 
posed plot  to  rescue  Napoleon  from  St.  Helena. 
After  the  death  of  its  owner  Cleopatra's  Barge  was 
dismantled  and  entered  the  merchant  service  and 
later  became  the  private  yacht  of  King  Kame- 
hameha  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  under  the  name 
of  Haaheo  o  Hawaii  (Pride  of  Hawaii)  until 
wrecked  on  one  of  the  islands  in  1824. 

The  intermarriage  of  the  Derby  and  Crownin- 
shield  families  had  provided  the  generation  to  which 
George  belonged  with  a  very  pretty  fortune.  He 
was  the  eldest  of  six  brothers  all  of  whom  followed 
the  sea  as  boys  and  of  whom  five  lived  to  become 
commanders  while  still  under  age.  The  house  built 
by  Benjamin  W.  Crowninshield,  who  became  secre- 
tary of  the  navy  under  Madison  and  Monroe, 
stands  excellently  preserved  as  the  Home  for  Aged 
Women  in  Derby  Street,  next  to  the  Custom 
House,  a  monument  to  the  substantial  fortune  of 
the  family.  When  Monroe  made  his  tour  of  the 
North,  in  1817,  this  house  was  placed  at  his  disposal 
during  the  four  days  that  he  remained  in  Salem, 
and  a  great  banquet  was  given  in  his  honour,  in  the 
southeast  room,  attended  by  Commodore  Perry 


270     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  other  distinguished  men.  This  room  is  hand- 
some and  typical.  It  contains  one  of  Mclntire's 
celebrated  mantels  and  imitates  the  amusing  device 
of  the  Galerie  des  Glaces  at  Versailles,  that  of  re- 
peating the  front  windows  on  the  back  wall,  sub- 
stituting mirrors  for  the  transparent  glass. 

Where  now  an  occasional  slow  barge  slides  slug- 
gishly to  port  at  the  far  end  of  Derby  Street,  there 
to  discharge  its  load  of  coal,  stands  the  recon- 
structed Crowninshield  Wharf,  the  last  one  to 
find  occupation  in  Salem.  At  this  end  of  town, 
too,  were  situated,  upon  Winter  Island  and  the 
Neck,  the  ship-yards  —  beyond  these  again  at  the 
Willows,  the  forts  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
Civil  War. 


CHAPTER   XII 
SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM 

SALEM,  with  the  delicate  detachment  of  some  fine 
old  lady,  bred  in  the  ancient  school  of  manners, 
only  gains  the  more  reverential  attention  by  re- 
serving her  choicer  aspects  to  the  loiterer  who  goes 
in  quest  of  them.  The  ancient  school  of  manners, 
as  one  remembers,  decreed  emphatically  that  fine 
ladies'  faces  were  not  to  be  "made  common"  by 
too  frequent  mingling  with  the  vulgar  street  crowd ; 
and  so,  one  seemed  to  make  out,  when,  the  shipping 
having  failed,  the  town,  with  its  new  departure  into 
shoemaking  or  whatever,  felt  the  need  of  a  "  busi- 
ness centre  "  in  the  midst  of  all  the  horrid  novelties 
of  its  progressive  movement,  the  fine  old  faces  all 
too  readily  gave  way. 

The  two  or  three  pathetic  cases  of  those  who 
weakly  determined  to  brave  it  out,  show  sadly 
enough  how  ground  was  held  only  at  the  sacrifice  of 
all  the  code  insisted  upon  by  the  old  school  of  man- 
ners; how  everything  considered  exquisite  in  the 
old  time  was  cheapened  and  defaced  and  compro- 
mised, as,  for  instance,  by  the  terrible  glass  fronts 

271 


272     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

imposed  upon  the  Pickman  house,  still  standing  be- 
side the  Peabody  Museum,  or  by  the  excessively 
low  company  kept  by  the  once  fine  old  Derby  house 
across  the  way. 

The  last,  recognizable,  upon  scrutiny,  by  the  fes- 
toons looped  with  classic  grace,  across  the  upper 
and  still  exposed  part  of  its  white  fa9ade,  holds 
within  its  once  perfect  interior  enough  of  the  fine 
flavour  of  the  past  to  give  the  explorer  quite  the 
emotion  of  an  archa?ologist  delving  in  the  ruins  of 
the  Palatine  Hill,  so  supremely  overlaid  by  the 
base  use  of  deteriorating  tenants  is  the  whole  ex- 
quisite thing. 

There  is,  for  instance,  an  old  winder  stairway  — 
there  were  once  two  —  whose  wide,  graceful  curve 
and  slender  rail  have  been  studied  by  architects  as  of 
type  so  perfect  as  almost  to  defy  copy.  From  some 
of  the  mantelpieces  the  central  sculptured  panel 
has  been  torn,  either  by  vandals  for  firewood  or  by 
treasure  seekers  who  presumably  saw  no  sin  in  ap- 
propriating what  was  all  too  inevitably  going  to 
rack  and  ruin  before  their  eyes ; 1  but  others  remain 
to  speak  for  the  chaste  beauty  and  elegance  of  the 
type.  The  elliptical  arches  in  the  hall,  their  under 
side  rich  in  Grecian  fretwork,  the  panelling,  the 

1  I  have  since  learned  that  the  panel  was  torn  out  by  the  irate  proprie- 
tor of  the  estate,  "because  somebody  wanted  to  buy  it  "(!). 


J 

M'INTIKE'S  ORIGINAL  ELEVATION  OF  THE 
EZEKIEL  HERSEY  DERBY  HOUSE.  l8oO. 


MANTEL    IN    THE    EZEKIEL    HERSEY 
DERBY    HOUSE   SHOWING   CENTRAL 
SCULPTURED  PANEL,  BEFORE 
DESTRUCTION. 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     273 

wainscoting,  with  hand-tooled  mouldings  carried 
throughout  the  existing  remnant,  all  bespeak  the 
best  Salem  style,  the  style  of  which  Samuel  Mc- 
Intire,  as  the  most  celebrated  carver  and  architect 
of  the  town,  was  the  founder  and  inspiration. 

Of  the  desecrated  front  there  is  fortunately  pre- 
served Mclntire's  original  elevation,  together  with 
the  neat  plans  of  the  interior,  and  this  shows  an  ex- 
quisite early  type  of  modern  town  house,  square, 
with  the  railed  roof  and  chimneys  at  each  side,  while 
the  facade  of  wood,  its  level  surface  varied  by  the 
application  of  plain  pilasters,  connected  by  dainty 
festoons  and  straight  hanging  garlands,  the  win- 
dows shaped  and  spaced  with  art,  the  doorway  ex- 
ceedingly graceful  and  beautiful,  and  the  whole 
beauty  of  the  front  punctuated  as  it  were  by  five 
rosettes  placed  at  equal  distances  above  the  first 
story  with  indescribable  charm.  This  third  Derby 
house  was  soon  after  its  erection,  in  1800,  the  resi- 
dence of  Ezekiel  Hersey  Derby,  a  son  of  Elias 
Hasket  and  a  grandson  of  the  builder  of  the  old 
gambrel  roof  brick  house  in  Derby  Street. 

If  Richard  was  to  do  so  well  for  his  boy  old 
Colonel  Pickman  had  done  as  much  for  his,  and  a 
famous  house  built  for  Benjamin  Pickman,  Jr.,  in 
1764,  was  lately  taken  down  to  make  room  for  the 
Masonic  Temple  on  Washington  Street.  Later 


274     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Elias  Hasket  was  to  live  there,  until  his  removal 
just  before  his  death  to  the  mansion  in  Derby 
Square,  and  it  was  during  his  occupancy  that  the 
handsome  cupola,  designed  by  Mclntire  and  now 
preserved  in  the  grounds  of  the  Essex  Institute, 
was  added.  This  cupola  is  interesting  for  its 
arched  ceiling  containing  frescoes  by  Corne,  depict- 
ing several  vessels  of  the  Derby  fleet,  and  the  cir- 
cular hole  in  the  blind,  made  to  hold  the  end  of  old 
Mr.  Derby's  telescope  when  he  mounted  the  dome 
to  sight  an  incoming  vessel.  Perhaps  this  rich  old 
man  tried  out  the  genius  of  his  architect  upon  the 
changes  to  the  Pickman  house,  for  we  know  that 
Mclntire  added  the  balustrade  to  the  roof,  the 
Ionic  pilasters  to  the  facade  and  the  coach  house 
entire,  with  its  carved  eagle  and  festooned  draperies 
since  transferred  to  a  barn  in  another  street. 

John  Rogers,  the  sculptor,  was  born  in  the  old 
Pickman  house,  and  the  Essex  Institute  preserves 
an  amusing  collection  of  the  once  famous  Rogers' 
groups,  so  expressive  of  the  thought  and  occur- 
rences of  their  day. 

Stepping  off  the  train  and  weathering  the  anach- 
ronous  Norman  portal,  there  is  nothing  in  the  im- 
mediate prospect  of  the  invaded  Salem  to  suggest 
the  cool,  clean  succession  of  closely  related  period 
houses  and  gardens,  the  whole  neighbourhoods  of 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     275 

perfectly  intact  "  tone  "  standing  in  secure  homoge- 
neity in  the  native  air  and  still  held  (blessed  con- 
trast to  our  national  disloyalty  to  the  ancestral 
taste!)  largely  by  lineal  descendants  of  the  "cap- 
tains "  who  built  them  in  the  most  expansive  days 
of  Salem's  maritime  affluence. 

The  undermining  of  Washington  Street,  its 
whole  length  given  to  the  steam  road's  tunnel,  left 
standing  nothing  of  the  once  stately  buildings  which 
made  the  ancient  charm  of  this  earliest  thorough- 
fare— -the  road,  four  rods  wide,  laid  out  in  Ende- 
cott's  day,  to  connect  the  ways  that  led  past  the  old 
mansions  facing  the  two  rivers. 

We  know  that,  in  the  old  days,  a  very  consider- 
able architectural  effect  must  have  been  gained  by 
the  erection  of  the  Court  House,  one  of  the  few 
public  buildings  designed  by  Samuel  Mclntire, 
whose  genius  was  chiefly  expended  upon  Salem's 
homes.  It  was  executed,  from  Mclntire's  designs, 
by  Daniel  Bancroft,  of  whose  skill  at  present  all  too 
little  is  known,  and  the  expense  of  the  building  was 
borne  jointly  by  the  county  of  Essex  and  the  town 
of  Salem. 

Several  old  steel  engravings  and  a  contemporary 
oil  painting,  in  the  collections  of  the  Essex  Insti- 
tute, show  the  beautiful  peace  of  the  street  in  those 
days,  with  a  compact  square  building,  with  brick 


276     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

walls  and  its  roof  surmounted  by  a  high  cupola,  oc- 
cupying literally  the  middle  of  the  way.  On  the 
front  or  southern  end  was  a  balcony  opening  into 
the  second  story,  supported  by  a  row  of  Tuscan  pil- 
lars, and  under  the  balcony  were  wide  stone  steps 
leading  through  a  porch  into  the  lower  hall. 

The  Court  House  was  built  in  the  years  1785-1786 
and  was  still  a  novelty  of  which  the  state  was  proud 
when  a  very  lovely  engraving  of  it  appeared  in  the 
March  number  of  the  Massachusetts  Magazine  for 
the  year  1790,  together  with  a  short  article  describ- 
ing the  large  court  hall  as  "  the  best  constructed 
room  of  any  in  the  commonwealth  and  perhaps  not 
exceeded  by  any  in  the  United  States."  A  Vene- 
tian window  behind  the  judge's  seat,  this  writer  ex- 
plains, afforded  "  a  beautiful  prospect  of  a  fine 
river,  extensive,  well  cultivated  fields  and  groves,  in 
addition  to  which  the  passing  and  repassing  of  ves- 
sels continually  in  the  river  [made]  a  pleasing 
variety." 

When  Washington  made  his  tour  of  the  Xorth  in 
1789  he  was  presented  to  the  people  of  Salem  from 
the  balcony  of  this  Court  House,  a  ceremony  de- 
scribed by  Felt,  in  his  Annals,  as  a  memorable  dem- 
onstration, the  street  being  thronged  with  thou- 
sands of  eager  and  enthusiastic  patriots.  The  story 
is,  in  Salem,  that  Mclntire  took  advantage  of  this 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     277 

occasion  to  seat  himself  in  a  window  on  Washing- 
ton Street  from  which  the  president  on  the  balcony 
was  readily  visible  and  to  make  the  sketch  from 
which  the  profile  medallion  carved  in  wood  was 
later  developed  for  the  arched  entrance  to  the 
Salem  Common.  By  most  Washington  portrait 
collectors,  however,  it  is  considered  an  adaptation 
of  Wright's  profile. 

Washington  Street  now  records  the  brutal  efface- 
ment  of  every  related  object  of  a  whole  precious 
past.  Until  1837  Salem  was  the  terminus  of  the 
Old  Eastern  Railroad,  but  when  the  tracks  were 
extended  to  its  second  stage,  at  Portland,  Maine, 
and  the  tunnel  was  built,  the  Court  House  was  the 
first  of  the  sacrifices  entailed,  standing  as  it  did 
just  over  its  projected  route  upon  a  slight  emi- 
nence dominating  the  little  town. 

To  catch  up  with  the  retreat  of  the  best  of  the 
period  houses  and  gardens  the  loiterer  should  mount 
the  slight  rise  of  land,  over  the  hollow  of  the  short, 
black  tunnel,  to  Federal  Street,  and  turn  to  the  left 
past  the  granite  grimness  of  the  modern  court 
house  and,  passing  up  a  pretty  shaded  street,  he 
will  shortly  come  to  a  large  white  frame  dwelling, 
in  the  pink  of  condition,  which  he  will  know  at  once 
for  the  Peirce  house,  "the  finest  wooden  house  in 
New  England"  —  the  family  still  in  residence  but 


278     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  estate  taken  over  by  the  Essex  Institute  for 
perpetual  preservation. 

The  Peirce  house  is  typical  of  pretty  nearly 
everything  that  is  interesting,  historical,  and  beau- 
tiful in  Salem.  It  might  indeed  be  called  the 
clou  of  the  collection.  Mclntire  worked  eighteen 
years  upon  it  making  it  the  masterpiece  of  his  tal- 
ent, the  complete  record  of  his  development.  But 
this  is  not  the  most  interesting  fact  about  the  old 
place ;  that,  I  take  to  be,  the  perfect  elements  it  here 
conserves  of  the  picture  of  its  builder,  Jerathmeel 
Peirce,  the  wealthy  East  India  merchant,  living  in 
luxury  upon  the  banks  of  the  old  North  River;  of 
the  preserved  forecourt  behind  the  house,  the  orig- 
inal gate,  which  lent  distinction  to  the  famous  ter- 
raced garden  it  disclosed  and  protected,  and 
through  which  Jerathmeel  passed  daily  during  forty- 
four  years  to  his  wharf  and  warehouse  on  the  then 
navigable  stream. 

Except  that  Jerathmeel  (I  like  that  name)  is 
dead  and  the  river  is  buried,  all  the  elements  of  the 
scene  are  complete.  The  more  complete,  as  I  seem 
to  feel  it,  because  the  old  shut-off  garden  has 
been  allowed  to  fall  into  picturesque  decay.  When 
I  walked  through  it  closing  the  gate  in  the  wall  be- 
hind me,  I  seemed  to  enter  another  age.  The 
straight  old  path  led  over  crunching  gravel,  as  if 


MANTEL    SHOWING    LANDSCAPK   PAPER.     CAPTAIN    COOK'S    HOUSE,    1804. 
THE   MANTEL   IS   FROM    THE   (II. I)    DERBY    HOUSE.    I/Q9-     THE   PAPER   DEPICTS 
THE  PANORAMA   OF    PARIS,   AND   WAS    MADE   IN    l82O. 


ENTRANCE  PORCH  TO  THE  GEORGIAN  SIDE  OF  JERATHMEEL  PEIRCE  HOUSE. 
SAMUEL  M'JNTIRE,  ARCHITECT,   1/82. 


KNOCKER    TO   THE   GEORGIAN    DOOR 
OF   JERATHMEEL    PEIRCE    HOUSE. 


GEORGIAN   PARLOR,    1782,   OF  JERATHMEEL   PEIRCE    HOUSE. 


MANTEL  AND  MIRROR  IN  THE  ADAMS  PARLOUR.  JERATHMEEL  PEIRCE  HOUSE. 
SAMUEL  M'INTIRE,  ARCHITECT,  1800. 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     279 

impatient  of  deviations,  to  the  now  boarded  end. 
Fruit  trees  were  in  luxuriant  bloom,  exotic  plants 
struggled  against  weeds,  and  the  spare  branches  of 
the  vines  which  straggled  upon  the  trellis  of  the 
covered  walk  were  just  bursting  fatly  into  bud.  It 
is  a  very  steep  garden  and  seated  at  the  top  of  the 
box-bordered  path,  upon  some  worn  steps,  one  could 
project  the  mind's  eye  beyond  the  boarded  end  and 
figure  the  bustle  and  confusion  upon  the  wharf  be- 
yond, the  landing  of  fragrant  spices  and  delicate 
fabrics,  the  loading  of  the  famous  rum;  while  over 
all,  controlling,  urging,  "speeding  up,"  as  the  vul- 
gar current  phrase  is,  recalcitrant  stevedores,  old 
Jerathmeel  himself,  tall,  broad  of  back,  and  with  the 
arrested  dissolution  of  a  very  fine  figure,  I  seemed 
to  picture  him,  the  very  spirit  and  breath  and  vigour 
of  the  enterprise. 

I  hated  to  think  of  him  full  of  years  and  ruined, 
as  we  read,  by  the  embargo  and  non-intercourse 
acts  which  imposed  such  grave  hardships  on  Xew 
England  merchants;  and  I  even  felt  a  certain  im- 
patience with  the  kindly  friend,  Johonnot,  who 
really  after  all  only  half  did  things  when  he  pur- 
chased the  house,  when  it  was  forced  upon  the  mar- 
ket, and  occupied  it  for  the  brief  remainder  of  his 
own  lifetime,  to  bequeath  it  with  a  generosity  all 
too  deliberated  and  deferred  to  Jerathmeel's  de- 


280     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

scendants  —  the  old  gentleman  having  promptly 
died  from  the  shock  and  humiliation  of  the  separa- 
tion, with,  as  was  said,  a  broken  heart. 

We  possessed  in  America,  writes  a  recent  critic, 
no  architect  before  Charles  Bulfinch,  "  a  name 
which  marks  the  close  of  the  great  period  in  Amer- 
ican architecture."  The  peculiar  suddenness  of  this 
sentence  makes  me  think  of  an  epitaph  I  once  saw 
on  the  tombstone  of  a  very  young  person  in  a 
Pennsylvania-Dutch  burying-ground :  "If  I  am  so 
soon  done  for,  what  was  I  begun  for?"  But  ac- 
cepting its  grain  of  truth,  this  frank  statement 
should  make  us  the  more  willing  to  concede  that 
Samuel  Mclntire,  the  builder  of  the  Peirce  house, 
and  the  wood  carver  of  Salem,  was  not  of  that 
profession,  as  we  now  understand  it.  From  ex- 
pert shipbuilders,  skilled  in  the  finer  aspects  of 
that  trade,  the  woodworkers  of  Salem  passed,  after 
the  shipping  failed,  readily  enough  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  housewrights,  as  the  master  builders  of  the 
colonial  period  were  content  to  call  themselves. 

Mclntire  lived  so  modestly,  working  wholly  for 
his  native  town  that  it  is  only  very  lately  that  his 
name  has  been  recognized  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
immediate  field.  He  was  born,  lived,  and  died  in 
Salem,  so  far  as  we  know  never  aspiring  to  build 
beyond  the  confines  of  his  locality,  except  in  the  one 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     281 

recorded  instance  when  he  submitted  plans  in  com- 
petition for  the  national  capital,  and  of  which  the 
originals  are  preserved  by  the  Maryland  Historical 
Society.  Salem  then,  all  satisfactorily  for  the  stu- 
dent, contains  every  record  but  one  of  this  interest- 
ing life.  There  is  the  much-remodelled  gamhrel 
roof  house  on  Mill  Street,  a  house  built  by  his 
father,  in  which  he  wras  born  in  1757.  There  is  the 
modest  three-story  house  in  Summer  Street  which 
he  bought  after  his  marriage;  and  there  is  the 
excellent  slate  in  the  Charter  Street  Burying 
Ground  which  marks  his  grave  and  from  which 
we  learn  that  he  died  in  1811,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
four  years.  The  entirely  legible  inscription,  re- 
cently recut,  records  that  Samuel  Mclntire  wras 
distinguished  for  genius  in  architecture,  sculpture, 
and  music;  that  his  manners  were  sweet  and  pleas- 
ing; that  his  life  was  regulated  by  industry  and  in- 
tegrity ;  and  that  he  was,  in  fine,  a  man  of  virtuous 
principle  and  unblemished  conduct. 

Mclntire  studied  and  practised  wood  carving 
under  the  local  masters,  but  having  an  inborn  taste 
for  architecture  developed  and  trained  himself  by 
the  study  of  such  books  as  he  could  rarely  come  by, 
devoting  himself  assiduously  to  the  great  classic 
masters,  with  whose  works,  notwithstanding  their 
scarcity  in  this  country,  he  was  well  acquainted. 


282     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

From  the  inventory  of  his  estate  we  know  that 
Mclntire  possessed  Palladio's  Architecttura  as 
well  as  works  on  the  same  subject  by  Ward,  Lang- 
ley,  and  Paine  and  two  volumes  on  French  archi- 
tecture. His  shop  contained  a  set  of  tools  famous 
at  the  time  for  its  size  and  completeness  —  the  list 
enumerates  "  three  hundred  chisels  and  gouges  and 
forty-six  moulding  planes/'  While  for  his  musical 
tastes  he  left  "  a  large  hand  organ  with  ten  barrels," 
a  double  bass,  a  violin  and  case,  and  a  collection  of 
books  on  music  including  an  edition  of  Handel's 
Messiah. 

Salem  houses  are  nearly  all  of  the  comfortable 
square  type,  structurally  very  simple,  so  that  their 
fame  rests  upon  beauty  of  proportion  and  embel- 
lishments, their  doorways,  cornices,  gateposts,  and 
the  elaboration  of  the  hand-carved  interior  wood- 
work. The  Adam  Brothers'  books  on  decoration 
appeared  just  after  Mclntire  began  work  upon 
the  Peirce  house,  which  was  amongst  his  earli- 
est commissions,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  west  parlour  which  was  finished  in  1782,  before 
the  issue  of  the  first  of  these  books,  is  altogether 
different  in  treatment  from  the  east  parlour,  done 
in  1800  when  the  architect  was  completely  under 
the  influence  of  the  celebrated  Scotsmen. 

The  Georgian  parlour,  as  it  is  designated,  has 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     283 

decided  individuality  and  character.  Mclntire 
built  it  when  he  was  but  twenty-five  years  of  age  so 
that  it  represents  the  purity  of  his  youthful  period. 
The  chimney  side  of  the  room,  according  to  the  pre- 
vailing fashion,  was  solid  panelling,  a  relic  of  the 
ship  cabin  frequently  seen  in  sea-captains'  dwell- 
ings in  the  Xew  England  ports.  The  fireplace  is  es- 
pecially notable  being  set  with  tiles  depicting  scenes 
from  La  Fontaine's  fables  and  provided  with  a 
handsome  hob-grate  set  in  soap-stone  similar  to  one 
still  standing  in  the  house  built  by  Captain  Cook, 
farther  up  this  street,  and  considered,  in  those  days 
of  wood  fuel,  a  mad  extravagance.  The  massive 
woodwork  which  connects  the  doors  with  the  heavy 
cornice  is  remarkable  in  this  room,  and  as  a  mark  of 
age  one  may  note  the  original  strap  hinges,  the 
latches  and  handles  all  strictly  of  the  period. 

The  east  parlour  has  been  called  the  finest  speci- 
men of  Adam  influence  in  this  country  and  has 
been  studied  extensively  by  architects.  It  is  a  larger 
room  than  the  Georgian  drawing-room  and  upon  it 
evidently  Mclntire  lavished  his  most  loving  care 
and  attention.  Everywhere — .in  the  cornice,  around 
the  framework  of  the  doors  and  windows,  border- 
ing the  wainscoting,  and  especially  the  chimney 
place  —  one  may  see  the  exquisite  effect  of  his 
chisels  and  gouges.  The  mantel  is  one  of  two  or 


284     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

three  of  the  very  best  type  in  Salem.  Over  it  hangs 
the  original  mirror  made  for  the  spot  to  measure 
and  imported  from  France.  The  room  is  particu- 
larly charming  since  most  of  the  original  furniture 
bought  for  it  by  Jerathmeel  Peirce  is  there,  and  of 
this  one  notes  particularly  the  Heppelwhite  win- 
dow seats  made  for  the  four  windows. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  curious  features  of  in- 
terior workmanship  to  be  found  in  Salem  is  the 
Chippendale  stairway  in  this  house,  made  of  solid 
mahogany;  a  device,  which  is  practically  a  chair- 
back  of  this  interesting  design,  alternates  with  four 
slender  square  balusters  all  the  way  up  to  the  top 
of  the  house  and  is  immensely  effective. 

For  the  exterior,  the  striking  features  are  the 
balustrade  of  the  low  hip  roof  and  the  belvedere,  or 
captain's  walk,  from  which  Jerathmeel  Peirce  could 
sweep  the  horizon  with  his  spyglass,  wThen  a  ship 
was  overdue  at  his  wharf,  or  to  which,  in  the  days 
when  he  followed  the  sea,  his  wife  might  mount  and 
watch  for  his  incoming.  The  fluted  pilasters  at  the 
corners  of  the  house,  showing  a  free  use  of  the  Doric 
order,  detract  from  the  monotony  of  its  lines  and  the 
knocker  on  the  side  doorway  is  famous  in  Salem. 
In  the  rear  of  the  house,  on  the  roof  of  one  of  the 
outbuildings,  is  perched  one  of  Mclntire's  famous 
eagles,  of  which  he  made  a  number  to  be  seen  about 

O  * 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S   SALEM     285 

the  town,  while  this  whole  courtyard  deserves  study 
as  something  quite  typical  and  extraordinary  in 
New  England  architecture,  especially  the  sort  of 
enclosed  colonnade  of  store-rooms  fitted  each  with 
broad  doors  and  elliptical  fan-lights  running  the 
breadth  of  the  house. 

For  thirty  years  Mclntire  set  the  pace  for  the 
architecture  of  Salem,  designing  in  that  time  most 
of  the  buildings  which  have  made  it  famous  for  the 
work  of  its  period.  The  Assembly  House  in  Fed- 
eral Street,  is  a  fine  example  of  Mclntire's  early 
work,  built  in  1782.  The  Assembly  House  was 
famous  in  its  day  of  public  service  as  the  scene  of 
balls  and  receptions,  and  Lafayette  was  dined  here 
during  his  first  triumphal  tour  of  the  country,  in 
1784.  Washington  attended  a  ball  given  in  his 
honour  here,  in  1789.  Early  in  its  history  the  house 
was  remodelled  for  a  private  dwelling.  Its  porch 
is  conspicuous  for  a  heavy  grape  frieze  carved  from 
wood,  its  festoons  and  ornamental  scroll  corners, 
and  the  elaborate  wrought-iron  railings. 

Again  in  Federal  Street  the  famous  Cook  house, 
many  years  in  building  and  now  on  the  decline, 
occupied  Mclntire's  genius  from  about  the  point 
where  he  completed  Jerathmeel  Peirce's  mansion 
until  his  death.  Pie  left  the  finish  in  fact  to  his 
brother  Joseph  who  had  been  associated  on  the 


286     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

work  as  housewright  and  master  builder.  Though 
it  contains  many  rather  thrilling  details  it  is  scarcely 
a  typical  house  nor  a  complete  result  for  our  archi- 
tect. It  seems  that  Captain  Cook  had  some  reverses 
while  the  building  was  under  way  and  that  in  order 
to  economize  Mclntire  persuaded  him  to  purchase 
and  incorporate  many  of  the  details  from  the  Derby 
mansion  about  to  be  condemned  in  Derby  Square, 
so  that  I  think  it  is  quite  evident  that  this  is  what 
was  originally  meant  to  be  a  rather  plain,  square, 
frame  house,  elaborated  a  trifle  incongruously  with 
the  "  hand-me-downs  "  from  a  mansion  of  quite  a 
different  character.  The  house,  in  short,  appears  a 
bit  over  trimmed  for  its  simple  construction.  The 
gate  and  fence  posts,  with  their  ornamental  urns, 
are  from  the  Derby  house  and  decided  the  character 
of  the  fence  and  the  handsome  porch  and  doorway 
—  dishonoured,  however,  by  a  modern  door — all 
charmingly  harmonized  by  the  repetition  of  the 
straight  hanging  garlands,  original  to  the  posts.  An 
interesting  feature  of  the  exterior  is  the  broad, 
fluted  band  which  extends  across  the  front,  hold- 
ing the  porch  to  the  house.  The  heavy  cornice 
and  elaborate  entablatures  above  the  second-story 
windows  intended  to  relieve  the  severity  of  the 
front,  seem  perhaps  too  fine  for  their  setting,  so 
that  in  short  this  house,  of  which  one  had  ex- 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     287 

pected  so  much,  proved  in  the  reality  rather  a 
disappointment. 

The  interior,  again,  has  not  that  charm  of  a  thing 
conceived  as  a  whole,  though  its  details  are  in  spots 
quite  marvellous,  so  marvellous  in  fact  that  mu- 
seums have  become  covetous  of  its  treasures.  This 
house  contained  some  of  the  most  extraordinary 
hand-blocked  wall  paper,  brought  over  by  Captain 
Cook  about  1820,  when  he  refitted  the  house  for  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter  Sally  to  Henry  Kemble 
Oliver.  The  hall  paper  is  now  preserved  in  the 
Metropolitan  Museum ;  but  the  parlour  still  retains 
the  French  scenic  design  depicting  the  panorama 
of  Paris  as  viewed  from  the  Seine,  a  century  ago, 
supposed  to  have  been  printed  by  Zuber,  the  famous 
Alsatian  manufacturer.  The  exquisite  carved 
mantel  in  this  room  is  unexcelled  in  Salem,  and 
under  it  the  first  brass  hob-grate  that  Salem  knew 
still  shines  in  its  soap-stone  setting.  The  stairway 
is  lighted  by  a  Palladian  window  and  the  details  of 
mouldings,  newel,  balusters,  wainscot,  etc.,  show 
that  wealth  of  loving  treatment  characteristic  of  its 
author. 

There  are  many  houses  in  Essex  Street  at  this 
end  of  the  town,  as  well  as  at  the  other,  which  will 
repay  careful  study.  The  porch  of  the  Silsbee 
house  (No.  380)  is  considered  one  of  the  best  in 


288    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Salem.  Here  we  have  indeed  a  door  worthy  of 
its  frame,  one  of  many  of  the  choice  type  in  town, 
but  surely  nowhere  surpassed  for  delicately  moulded 
panels  pinned  down  with  tiny  corner  ornaments. 
The  setting  is  Ionic  in  feeling,  the  fluted  columns 
tapering  to  an  acanthus  leaf  enrichment  to  support 
the  capitals,  while  the  leaded  fan-light,  its  graceful 
lines  accented  at  the  jointures  by  rosettes  repeating 
the  pinheads  in  the  door  panels,  the  sidelights,  the 
exquisite  taste  and  restraint  of  the  details  of  the 
porch,  capped  by  a  prodigy  of  hand-carved  ball 
moulding;  the  whole  feeling  for  beautifully  doing 
it  carried  out  in  the  balustrade  over  the  porch  and 
the  wrought-iron  fence,  which  ties  the  garden  to  the 
house  and  leads  up  to  its  gracious  doorway,  are 
things  to  linger  long  in  the  memory.  This  house 
was  built  by  Mclntire  in  1797. 

The  Osgood  house  (No.  312),  built  in  1765, 
is  of  special  interest  as  the  last  Salem  residence 
of  the  celebrated  mathematician  and  astronomer, 
Nathaniel  Bowditch,  one  of  the  names  that  should 
not  be  forgotten  here.  Nathaniel  Bowditch  did 
as  much  as  any  man  to  reflect  glory  upon  his 
native  town  and  his  Practical  Navigator  is  still 
an  authority  in  its  field.  "  It  goes,"  said  the  Lon- 
don Athenceum,  "both  in  American  and  British 
ships,  over  every  sea  of  the  globe,  and  is  probably 


PORTRAIT   OF    NATHANIEL    BOWDITCH,   BY    CHARLES    OSGOOD,    1835. 

MARINE    ROOM,    PEABODY    MUSEUM, 

SALEM. 


THE   SHIP   Hercules   OF    SALEM, 
OWNED   BY    NATHANIEL   WEST   AND 
COMMANDED  BY    HIS   BROTHER,  CAPT. 
EDWARD   WEST,   PASSING  THE    MOLE 
HEAD  OF   NAPLES,  COMING   TO 
ANCHOR,   13   SEPT.,   1809. 
MARINE  ROOM,   PEABODY   MUSEUM, 
SALEM. 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     289 

the  best  work  of  the  sort  ever  published."  This 
book,  in  reality  a  revision  of  a  popular  handbook 
of  navigation,  by  John  Hamilton  Moore,  corrected 
many  thousand  errors  in  tables  and  calculations 
in  current  use,  besides  adding  new  methods  of 
Bowditch's  own.  So  great  was  his  service  to  mari- 
ners that,  upon  his  death,  American  ships,  and 
English  and  Russian  vessels  in  foreign  ports  hung 
their  colours  at  half-mast,  while  the  cadets  of  the 
United  States  Naval  School  wore  the  official  badge 
of  mourning. 

A  rather  delicious  Salem  memory  serves  to  link 
this  Osgood  house  and  the  handsome  new  Athe- 
na?um,  across  the  way.  The  nucleus  of  the  col- 
lections of  the  Athenaeum  consists  of  a  number  of 
ancient  volumes  from  the  private  library  of  Dr. 
Richard  Kirwan,  of  Dublin,  a  distinguished  scien- 
tist. This  library  was  seized  as  a  prize  of  war,  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  by  a  Beverly  privateer.  The 
story  goes  that  the  private  armed  ship,  Pilgrim ,  be- 
longing to  John  and  Andrew  Cabot,  while  cruising 
off  the  English  coast  captured  the  British  ship, 
Mars,  after  a  desperate  sea  fight,  in  which  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Mars  and  five  men  were  killed.  The 
prize  reached  Beverly  February  9,  1781,  and  with 
her  cargo  was  sold  at  auction.  Amongst  the  cargo 
was  Dr.  Kirwan's  library ;  it  was  secured  by  several 


290     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

gentlemen  of  Salem,  who  contributed  the  amount 
necessary  for  its  purchase,  and  with  it  founded  the 
Philosophical  Library  Company,  now  included  in 
the  Salem  Athenaeum.  The  name  "  R.  Kirwan,"  in 
faded  ink,  may  be  deciphered  on  the  flyleaves  of 
several  of  the  volumes  exhibited  in  the  Trustees' 
Room,  and  one  still  bears  Dr.  Kirwan's  bookplate. 

Upon  this  rare  trouvaille  Nathaniel  Bowditch 
feasted  his  young  mind  during  the  time  that  he  was 
apprenticed  to  a  ship  chandler  in  Salem,  and  it  gave 
the  impetus  to  Iris  extraordinary  mathematical  abil- 
ity. The  Atheneeum  was  founded  in  1810,  and  in 
recognition  of  his  genius,  the  boy  enjoyed  special 
privileges,  especially  with  Dr.  Kirwan's  library 
which  he  studied  exhaustively.  He  describes  the 
Athenaeum  in  his  day  as  richer  in  scientific  and 
philosophical  works  than  could  be  found  nearer 
than  Philadelphia.  At  his  death  he  left  the  insti- 
tution a  legacy  in  grateful  acknowledgement  of  its 
service  to  himself. 

Of  the  Athenaeum  also  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  was 
a  proprietor.  Its  first  president  was  Edward 
Augustus  Holyoke,  of  whom  a  very  handsome  por- 
trait, by  Frothingham,  hangs  in  the  portrait  gallery 
of  the  Essex  Institute. 

If  Bowditch  was  an  intellectual  prodigy  he  was 
also  himself  a  "  practical  navigator."  He  followed 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     291 

the  sea  for  nine  years,  shipping  first  under  Captain 
Prince,  in  1795,  as  captain's  clerk  in  the  Henri/  of 
Salem.  With  this  same  captain  he  sailed,  as  super- 
cargo, in  Elias  Hasket  Derby's  ship  the  Astrca,  on 
the  first  voyage  made  by  an  American  ship  to 
Manila.  It  fell  to  Bowditch  to  keep  the  journal  of 
this  voyage  and  his  precise  hand-written  log  is  one 
of  the  treasures  of  Essex  Institute. 

During  the  voyage,  so  goes  the  ancient  anecdote, 
the  supercargo  entertained  himself  by  teaching 
navigation  to  the  sailors,  to  such  good  purpose  that 
the  whole  crew  of  twelve  aboard  the  Astrea  later  be- 
came captains  and  mates.  Not  to  waste  his  time 
during  the  tedium  of  his  five  recorded  sea  voyages 
he  studied  French,  Italian,  Portuguese,  and  Span- 
ish, besides  making  his  observations  and  putting 
his  theories  of  practical  navigation  to  the  test.  A 
shipmate  pictures  him  as  often  upon  the  deck, 
"walking  rapidly  and  apparently  in  deep  thought, 
when  it  was  well  understood  by  all  on  board  that  he 
was  not  to  be  disturbed,  as  we  supposed  that  he  was 
solving  some  difficult  problem.  And  when,"  con- 
tinues the  narrator,  "he  darted  below,  the  conclu- 
sion was  that  he  had  got  the  idea.  If  he  was  in  the 
fore  part  of  the  ship  when  the  idea  came  to  him,  he 
would  actually  run  to  the  cabin,  and  his  countenance 
would  give  the  expression  that  he  had  found  a  prize." 


292     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

He  wears  indeed  a  delicious  expression  of  win- 
some intelligence  in  the  thoroughly  characteristic 
portrait,  by  Charles  Osgood,  a  noted  Salem  artist, 
that  hangs  amongst  the  "  captains  "  in  the  Marine 
Room  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  for  he  was,  of 
course,  of  the  body  of  illustrious  founders  of  the 
East  India  Marine  Society.  The  portrait  shows 
such  a  proper  old  gentleman,  with  a  remarkable 
frontal  development,  upon  which  the  painter  has 
concentrated  the  light  so  that  the  illumination  is 
almost  equal  to  that  which  shines  upon  the  dome  of 
the  State  House  on  Beacon  Hill.  The  painting  of 
this  head  is  quite  a  performance  and  shows  -an  ap- 
preciation of  the  intellectuality  of  the  sitter  that 
reflects  most  creditably  upon  the  mentality  of  a 
painter  not  too  well  known  outside  his  locality.  The 
skull  is  there  under  its  thin  fleshy  envelope, 
stretched  as  it  were  to  its  capacity  by  the  prodigious 
brain  within.  Nathaniel  Bowditch  is  frankly  posed, 
one  feels  the  concession  in  the  hand  which  holds 
down  the  place,  in  the  book  before  him  on  the  table, 
at  which  he  was  interrupted,  as  well  as  the  spectacles 
held  provisionally  in  the  left  hand  ready  to  slip 
back  before  the  keen  old  eyes  the  moment  he  is  re- 
leased from  his  obligation  to  the  painter.  He  is  all 
in  black,  out  of  respect  to  the  dead  languages,  as 
one  might  fancy,  and  his  satin  waistcoat  and  white 


SAMUEL   McIXTIKE'S    SALEM     293 

stock  have  caught  the  indirect  light  as  it  descends 
from  the  shining  head.  Behind  him  books,  hooks, 
hooks,  and  an  open  window  with  a  bit  of  land- 
scape and  a  curtain  pulled  to  one  side  and  against 
which  rests  in  shadow  the  bust  of  the  great  French 
astronomer.  Laplace,  whose  work,  Mecanique 
Celeste,  Bowditch  translated  and  enriched  by  ex- 
haustive notes. 

The  Essex  Institute,  which  will  be  found  a  very 
treasure  house  of  historic  matter,  preserves  and  ef- 
fectively displays  the  medallion  portrait  of  Wash- 
ington, made  from  the  sketch  done  on  the  spot  from 
life,  by  Samuel  Mclntire  for  the  western  gate  of 
the  Salem  Common,  and  perched  on  the  top  of  the 
City  Hall,  in  Washington  Street,  will  be  found  the 
carved  and  gilded  eagle  made  by  the  same  artist, 
which  stood  over  the  centre  of  the  arch.  Felt's  A  n- 
nals  shows  a  woodcut  of  the  imposing  effect  of 
these  improvements  made  to  the  Common  about  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  and  relates  how  Elias 
Hasket  Derby,  Jr.,  who  was  "  then  a  colonel  in  the 
militia,"  raised  a  fund  for  grading,  planting  trees, 
and  kindred  improvements,  and  how,  in  1805,  fur- 
ther contributions  enabled  the  town  to  enclose  its 
green  within  a  wooden  fence  with  four  ornamental 
gateways.  The  woodcut  is  made  from  the  western 
end,  the  most  elaborate,  with  the  eagle  over  the  top 


of  the  arch  and  the  profile  medallion  in  the  centre 
underneath. 

Most  of  the  fine  houses  surrounding  the  common 
were  built  in  1818,  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
year  when  this  neighbourhood  was  taken  up  as  a 
fashionable  quarter,  and  so  they  represent  the  last 
flower  of  the  "  period."  Nothing  of  note  in  this 
period  was  added  to  the  architecture  of  Salem  after 
the  death  of  Mclntire's  son,  who  died  in  1819  — 
perhaps  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  after  the 
death  of  Daniel  Bancroft,  which  occurred  in  June 
1818.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Daniel  Ban- 
croft was  associated  with  Mclntire  in  the  build- 
ing of  the  Court  House,  or  rather  that  Bancroft 
built  it  from  Mclntire's  designs.  It  is  probable 
that,  in  our  eagerness  to  do  belated  justice  to 
Mclntire,  Bancroft's  abilities  may  be  overlooked. 
The  Reverend  William  Bentley,  who  was  some- 
thing of  a  connoisseur,  records  in  his  Diary,  under 
the  date  June  5,  1818:  'This  week  we  buried 
Daniel  Bancroft  age  72.  He  was  the  most  able 
architect  we  had.  We  gave  more  to  the  genius  of 
Macintire  as  a  carver,  but  as  a  practical  man  in 
every  part  of  carpentry,  in  house  building,  I  have 
never  known  Mr.  Bancroft's  superior." 

The  character  of  the  houses  on  Washington 
Square,  while  a  little  cold  compared  with  those  of 


MANTEL   IN   THE   PARLOUR   OF   THE   KIMBALL   RESIDENCE,    SALEM. 
CARVED  BY    SAMUEL    M'lNTIRE. 


KIMBALL  HOUSE   DOORWAY,    14   PICKMAN    ST.  SPIRAL   STAIRWAY.  KIMBALL  HOUSE. 


PORCH  AND  DOORWAY  OF  THE  PEABODY-SILSBEE  HOUSE. 
SAMUEL  M'INTIRE,  ARCHITECT,  1797. 


.     SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     295 

earlier  date,  is  undeniably  good  and  shows  the 
Mclntire  influence  and  tradition,  a  tradition  car- 
ried on  as  it  would  appear  by  the  capable  builder 
perhaps  directed  by  the  son  of  so  brilliant  a  father, 
only  to  perish  with  the  last  of  the  family.  In  this 
connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  year  of 
his  death  (1811)  finds  Bulfinch  the  designer  of  the 
Essex  Bank,  and,  in  1816,  of  the  Almshouse,  that 
rather  cold,  prison-like  structure  across  Collin's 
Cove,  upon  Salem  Xeck. 

The  year  1800  seems  to  have  been  an  auspicious 
one  for  Samuel  Mclntire;  no  doubt  his  great 
achievement,  the  Derby  mansion,  had  put  him  in  a 
frame  of  mind  to  do  his  best  work.  Certainly  every- 
thing which  bears  that  date  is  of  the  best  —  the 
Ezekiel  Hersey  Derby  house  in  Essex  Street,  the 
Adam  drawing-room  of  Jerathmeel  Peirce's  house, 
the  doorway  and  porch  of  the  Tucker  house,  pre- 
served in  the  Essex  Institute,  the  incomparable 
beauty  of  the  details  of  "  Oak  Hill,"  at  Peabody,  all 
stand  prominently  out  amongst  his  bravest  efforts. 
To  this  catalogue  must  be  added  the  features  of  a 
charmingly  modest  brick  dwelling  in  Pickman 
Street,1  known  as  the  Kimball  house,  and  still  for- 
tunately resided  in  by  the  family.  This  most  sug- 
gestive street  in  Salem  leads,  under  spreading  elms, 

1  No.  14. 


296     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

straight  out  upon  Collin's  Cove,  terminating  in  the 
most  charming  of  vistas,  even  now  when  seldom  a 
craft  is  caught  within  the  feathery  frame  of  foliage, 
but  how  much  more  so  "  then,"  when  a  full-rigged 
ship  might  at  any  time  be  making  its  way  across  the 
open,  inward  or  outward  bound.  The  Kimball 
house,  amongst  modest  neighbours,  gives  itself  no 
airs,  beyond  exhaling  its  intrinsic,  native  charm,  its 
perfect  expression  of  one  to  the  manner  born.  It 
belongs  to  the  street  and  to  the  vista,  it  dates  back 
with  the  arching  elms  to  the  era  of  the  full-rigged 
ship.  That  there  is  "something  about  it "  one  senses 
as  soon  as  one  turns  into  this  quiet  street,  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  Common,  and  the  conviction  grows 
as  one  penetrates  the  aura  of  its  cool  compactness. 

What  a  delight  then  to  learn  that  the  Kimball 
house  contains  "  features "  unique  in  Salem.  It 
stands  closer  than  many  to  the  transition  period 
between  the  ship  carpentry  at  its  height,  with  its 
elaborate  wood  carving  done  for  the  pure  joy  of  the 
handicraft,  and  its  transference  to  the  uses  of  the 
housewright.  The  rope  moulding  throughout  the 
Kimball  house,  hand  carved  with  utmost  nicety, 
holds  the  essential  nautical  flavour.  A  line  of  it  fol- 
lows the  slender  wind  of  the  perfect  stairway  which 
like  a  pulled-out  shaving  is  stretched  through  the 
centre  of  this  shallow  house  with  clever  economy  of 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     297 

space,  and  at  the  first  landing  shows  no  break  in  the 
flowing  line  of  the  balustrade. 

There  are  several  contestants  for  the  honour  of 
the  best  Mclntire  mantel,  but  there  are  none  which 
show  the  fulness  of  his  powers,  the  exuberance  of 
his  fancy  as  does  this  one.  It  is  of  the  same  family 
as  those  in  the  Crowninshield  house  in  Derby  Street, 
but  even  more  intricate  and  elaborate.  The  shelf  is 
carried  around  the  angle  of  the  chimney  place  to 
provide  space  for  the  two  columns  which  flank  the 
opening  in  addition  to  the  fluted  pilasters  repeated 
on  the  sides.  In  many  of  Mclntire's  more  graceful 
and  delicate  mantels,  such  as  those  in  the  Derby 
house  on  Essex  Street  (202%)  and  Jerathmeel's 
Adam  drawing-room,  the  ornaments  are  modelled 
in  French  paste  and  applied  and  painted,  whereas 
the  Kimball  mantel  is  all  carved  out  of  wood  and 
represents  the  most  virile  and  splendid  type.  This 
quality  of  hand  carving  is  carried  throughout  the 
room.  A  special  feature  of  the  fireplace  is  the 
quaint  fireback,  made  in  the  reign  of  William  and 
Mary,  and  brought  over  from  England  to  Ipswich 
and  installed  there  in  the  house  of  the  present 
owner's  grandfather,  whence  it  came  to  Salem.  It 
bears  the  date  1698  and  the  letters  W  R  for  Wil- 
liam Rex,  very  distinctly,  as  well  as  an  effigy  of  that 
king,  wearing  his  crown  and  holding  his  sceptre. 


298     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  whole  greatly  resembles  the  slate  tombstones 
of  the  period. 

If  one  should  ask  for  the  Grosvenor  Square  of 
Salem  I  should  say  that  elm-shaded  Chestnut 
Street,  in  its  almost  intact  state  of  pristine  charm 
would  best  correspond  to  London's  high  water 
mark.  Most  of  the  houses  are  of  the  period  im- 
mediately succeeding  Mclntire's  death,  and  the 
architect,  had  he  lived,  would  doubtless  have  built 
the  whole  street.  He  made  the  Old  South  Church 
in  1804;  its  beauty  of  proportion  was  the  admira- 
tion of  the  country  and  its  spire  put  the  accent  of 
distinction  upon  this  neighbourhood.  It  stood 
ninety-nine  years,  the  type  of  such  spires  in  New 
England,  but  was  most  unhappily  destroyed  by 
fire,  in  1903.  He  built  Hamilton  Hall,  for  the 
Federalists,  in  1805,  named  in  honour  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  fine  old  structure  still  standing,  at 
the  corner  of  Cambridge  Street.  Lafayette  dined 
here  in  1824. 

The  Pingree  house,  128  Essex  Street,  was 
Mclntire's  last,  built  in  1810.  A  glance  at  it  wilt 
show  how  closely  it  relates  to  the  row  of  period 
houses,  in  Chestnut  Street,  built  immediately  after 
the  architect's  death.  The  Bolles  doorway,  No.  8, 
is  one  of  the  most  delightful  in  all  Salem  —  it  dates 
from  1810.  The  house  built  for  Dudley  L.  Pick- 


SAMUEL   McIXTIRE'S    SALEM     299 

man,  No.  27,  in  181(>,  has  a  famous  Corinthian 
porch  while  the  harmony  of  the  whole  facade  has 
made  this  house  a  type,  its  simplicity,  on  the  whole, 
more  satisfying  than  its  elaborated  neighbour. 

While  more  charming  individual  houses  than 
these  in  Chestnut  Street  abound  in  Salem,  the 
street  is  unique  because  of  the  handsome  double  row 
of  fine  designs  all  of  the  one  epoch — -the  epoch 
which  marks  the  close  of  the  great  American  period. 
The  street  is  in  its  way  as  perfect  as  the  gallery  of 
Gilbert  Stuarts,  in  The  Pennsylvania  Academy  of 
the  Fine  Arts.  As  the  rich  old  portraits  of  ances- 
tral Philadelphians,  done  by  a  great  resident  painter 
in  his  prime,  bespeak  the  character  of  the  painter  no 
less  than  the  character  of  his  sitters,  so  this  double 
file  of  clean-cut,  typical  houses,  standing  in  a  quiet 
by-way  of  an  ancient  town,  expresses  the  ideals  of 
both  designer  and  owner,  which  must  have  been 
singularly  in  accord  to  produce  such  harmony  of 
result.  Beneath  its  canopy  of  elms  Chestnut 
Street,  as  one  might  say,  is  admirably  "  hung  "  with 
masterpieces  of  a  significant  age. 

There  is  a  barn  in  Summer  Street  (Xo.  18)  be- 
longing to  one  of  the  Chestnut  Street  houses, 
which  conserves  a  few  relics  of  Mclntire's  carving, 
saved  by  an  enthusiastic  antiquarian  of  Salem. 
Upon  this  barn  may  be  seen  the  ornaments  from 


300     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  old  Derby  coach  house  purchased  from  the 
owner  after  it  had  heen  removed  to  Lynde  Street 
to  make  way  for  the  shops  that  were  built  in  the 
yard  of  the  mansion.  The  urns  at  each  end  of  the 
barn  roof  came  from  the  old  spire  of  the  South 
Church,  later  burned. 

No  doubt  the  time  will  come  when  Samuel  Mcln- 
tire,  sculptor,  will  be  rescued  from  oblivion  and 
made  known  to  the  world,  as  his  skill  as  architect 
is  now  recognized,  at  least  amongst  the  profession. 
We  now  place  Mclntire  in  the  field  of  architecture 
quite  on  a  par  with  Bulfinch,  if  not  rather  above  that 
better  known  architect;  but  though  during  his  life 
Mclntire  enjoyed  some  little  local  fame  as  sculp- 
tor, chiefly  through  the  appreciation  of  his  friend 
William  Bentley,  his  name  in  this  connection,  it 
would  seem  never  travelled  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
native  town. 

There  is  deposited  in  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society,  at  Worcester,  a  bust  of  Governor  Win- 
throp,  carved  from  wood  by  Samuel  Mclntire  for 
Mr.  Bentley,  in  1798.  It  owes  its  distinguished  lo- 
cation to  the  importance  of  the  subject  rather  than 
to  a  recognition  of  its  merits  as  a  work  of  art  or 
even  to  its  historic  importance  as  the  work  of  one 
of  the  two  earliest  native-born  American  sculptors. 
The  history  of  the  bust  may  be  gleaned  from  the 


FRONT  HALL  AND  STAIRWAY  OF  DAVID  P.  WATERS  HOUSE.     IT  IS  ALMOST  THE 
COUNTERPART  OF  THE  STAIRWAY  OF  THE  KIMBALL  HOUSE,  "WHICH   LIKE  A 
PULLED-OUT  SHAVING  IS  STRETCHED  THROUGH  THE  CENTRE  OF  THIS 
SHALLOW  HOUSE  WITH  CLEVER  ECONOMY  OF  SPACE." 
SAMUEL  M'INTIRE,  ARCHITECT,  1805. 


DUDLEY   L.   PICKMAN    HOUSE,    NO.   27   CHESTNUT   STREET. 
"ONE  OF  THE   MOST  DELIGHTFUL    IN    ALL    SALEM."      l8lO. 


THE    BOLLES    DOORWAY,    NO.    8    CHESTNUT   STREET. 

"ONE  OF  THE   MOST   DELIGHTFUL   IN    ALL    SALEM."       l8lO. 


SAMUEL  M  INTIRE'S  chef  d'ccuvre.    THE  TEA  HOUSE 

FROM    THE    HERSEY   DERBY    FARM,    PEABODY.       I7QQ. 


EAGLE  CARVED  BY  SAMUEL  M'lNTIRE 
IN  I8O2.  FROM  THE  WEST  GATE  OF 
THE  COMMON,  AND  NOW  ON  TOP  OF 
THE  CITY  HALL. 


SAMUEL   McIXTIRE'S    SALEM     301 

pages  of  Mr.  Bentley's  Diary  in  which  are  constant 
references  to  the  old  portraits  to  he  found  in  Salem. 
There  is  one  entry  in  which  the  good  man  speaks  of 
his  wish  to  preserve  the  heads  of  the  first  settlers, 
followed  by  a  memorandum  of  the  location  of  such 
data  as  exists.  He,  himself,  possessed  a  miniature 
of  Governor  Winthrop  "  from  the  original,"  -that 
is,  1  take  it,  made  from  life.  This  served  as  the 
basis  for  Mclntire's  bust,  with  which,  however, 
Bentley  seems  to  have  been  dissatisfied,  for  under 
May  21,  1798,  he  records:  "Mr.  Maclntire  re- 
turned to  me  my  Winthrop.  I  cannot  say  that  he 
has  expressed  in  the  bust  anything  which  agrees 
with  the  Governour." 

Bentley  with  all  his  qualities  seems  to  have  had 
the  temperamental  faults  of  the  art  patron.  But 
in  his  note  upon  Mclntire's  death  he  comes  out 
handsomely  with  the  statement  that  the  sculptor 
had  no  rival  in  New  England  and  boasts  that  the 
specimens  in  his  possession  would  bear  comparison 
with  any  he  had  ever  seen.  '  To  the  best  of  my 
abilities,"  says  Bentley,  "  I  encouraged  him  in  this 
branch." 

Mclntire's  dates  come  within  those  of  the  other 
early  American  sculptor  and  wood  carver,  William 
Rush,  of  Philadelphia,  than  whom  he  was  in  fact 
but  a  few  months  younger.  Rush,  however,  rounded 


302     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

out  more  than  the  full  measure  of  his  three  score 
years  and  ten  while  Mclntire  was  cut  off  at  but  a 
few  years  past  the  half  century.  Rush  worked  in 
a  metropolis  at  its  most  brilliant  period ;  he  was  of 
a  distinguished  family,  had  advantages  and  asso- 
ciations of  which  Mclntire  never  dreamed,  while 
his  full-length  statue  of  Washington,  carved  from 
"  recollection  "  aided  by  Houdon's  bust,  secured  to 
his  memory  a  measure  of  immortality. 

Mclntire  was  descended  from  a  poor  family  of 
carpenters  "  who  had  no  claims  on  public  favour." 
While  Rush  had  the  inspiration  of  Houdon's  work 
before  him,  it  is  probable  that  Mclntire,  beyond 
the  figureheads  of  ships,  had  seen  no  sculpture. 

If  we  could  place  side  by  side  Rush's  statue  of 
Washington  and  Mclntire's  life-size  figure  of  the 
"  Reaper  "  from  the  roof  of  the  summer-house  made 
for  the  Hersey  Derby  farm,  in  Peabody,  I  feel  quite 
certain  that  the  latter  neglected  figure  would  be 
found  to  measure  quite  up  to,  and  perhaps  beyond 
the  historic  relic  in  Independence  Hall.  The 
"  Reaper "  was  made  fifteen  years  earlier  than 
Rush's  tour  de  force  and,  together  with  the  figure 
of  the  "  Milkmaid,"  which  it  balanced  on  the  roof  of 
the  summer-house,  and  the  "  Pomona,"  which  used 
to  stand  before  the  pavilion,  was  considered  Mc- 
lntire's most  ambitious  success  in  sculpture. 


SAMUEL   McINTIRE'S    SALEM     303 

The  tea-house  itself,  quite  aside  from  its  sculp- 
tural features,  is  a  fine  little  bit  of  Colonial  archi- 
tecture. Its  proportions  constitute  its  chief  delight. 
The  floor  plan  is  about  18'x26',  while  the  elevation 
is  two  stories,  the  elegance  of  the  perpendicular 
heightened  by  the  tall  figure  surmounting  the  pedi- 
ment and  supported  at  the  two  ends  by  ornamental 
urns.  A  wide  passage,  now  paved  with  marble 
tiles,  runs  through  the  centre  of  the  house,  the  arch- 
way enclosed  by  lattice  work,  painted  green,  and 
this  passage  is  enclosed  on  both  sides  by  panelling, 
behind  which  are  the  small  rooms  used  for  keeping 
fruits.  A  narrow  stairway  leading  to  the  room 
above  discloses  a  wainscoted  and  panelled  chamber 
with  a  coved  ceiling,  very  charming  to  the  eye. 

The  tea-house  has  been  removed  bodily  to  the 
grounds  of  a  farm,  in  Danvers,  and,  in  its  new  en- 
vironment, has  been  appropriately  set  before  an 
enclosed  rose  garden,  shaded  by  luxuriant  trees. 
This  estate,  which  once  belonged  to  Joseph  Pea- 
body,  and  is  now  possessed  by  his  granddaughter, 
is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  little  bijou  of  archi- 
tecture, and  the  summer-house  has  been  treated 
with  utmost  reverence.  Its  furnishings  are  in  keep- 
ing with  the  traditions  that  have  been  preserved  in 
the  family. 

The  "  Milkmaid,"  after  serving  for  a  time  as  the 


ornament  to  an  old  mill,  or  whatever,  near  its  origi- 
nal location,  was  all  but  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the 
"  Pomona  "  was  taken  to  Milton,  but  the  "  Reaper  " 
is  still  handsomely  in  place  over  the  pediment  of  the 
little  building.  He  is  dressed  delightfully  in  the 
small-clothes  of  the  period  and  wears  a  silk  hat ;  he 
appears  standing  daintily,  like  a  fantastic  gentle- 
man farmer,  whetting  his  scythe,  carved  also  in 
wood. 

No  visitor  to  Salem  may  claim  to  have  truly 
revelled  in  its  charm  or  realized  its  influence  who 
has  failed  to  see  the  three  objectives  scattered 
through  Peabody  and  Danvers  and  of  which  the 
Derby  tea-house  is  the  chef  d'ceuvre.  "  The  Lin- 
dens "  is  the  earliest,  erected  in  1745  as  the  country 
home  of  Robert  Hooper,  called  "King  Hooper" 
because  he  was  a  Tory.  The  house  stands  in  ad- 
mirable preservation  at  a  bend  of  the  road  between 
Peabody  and  Danvers.  It  was  occupied  by  General 
Gage,  in  1774,  as  a  summer  residence  when  he  was 
governor  of  Massachusetts. 

"  Oak  Hill,"  a  large  estate  nearer  to  the  town  of 
Peabody,  was  built  by  Samuel  Mclntire  for 
Nathaniel  West,  who  married  Elizabeth  Derby, 
Elias  Hasket's  daughter.  It  was  of  the  same  vin- 
tage as  the  partially  dismantled  home  of  Mrs. 
West's  brother,  Ezekiel,  on  Essex  Street,  so  fre- 


SAMUEL  McINTIRE'S  SALKM      »()5 

quently  referred  to  and  with  which  it  had  much  in 
common.  Having  always  been  cared  for  it  pre- 
serves some  of  our  wood  carver's  most  charming 
work  both  outside  and  in.  The  doorways  compare 
with  those  of  Jerathmeel  Peirce's  house,  and  the  de- 
tails throughout  show  the  most  loving  care. 

The  house  was  built  in  1800,  the  year  after  Elias 
Hasket's  death,  and  the  owner  was  one  of  three 
seafaring  brothers  trained  in  the  Derby  ships. 
Nathaniel  West  was  born  and  died  in  Salem,  his 
life  having  spanned  all  but  a  century.  He  was  a 
pioneer  in  many  branches  of  the  trade  with  China 
and  other  Oriental  countries  and  having  served  in 
his  youth  upon  the  sea,  embarked  in  commerce  in 
middle  life,  amassing  a  large  fortune. 

Charles  Robert  Leslie's  portrait  of  Captain 
West,  in  the  Marine  Room  of  the  Peabody  Mu- 
seum, gives  a  gentler  account  of  his  personality  than 
the  local  historians,  who  have  described  him  as  of 
fine  figure  and  majestic  mien  and  gait.  A  spirited 
water  colour  of  his  ship,  the  Hercules,  commanded 
by  the  owner's  brother,  Captain  Edward  West,  at 
the  time  that  she  was  seized  in  Naples,  in  1809, 
hangs  upon  the  opposite  wall  of  this  room.  The 
ship  was  released  in  order  that  she  might  transport 
Lucien  Bonaparte  and  his  family  to  Malta.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  war  with  England,  in  181.5,  the 


S06    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Hercules  was  the  first  vessel  to  sail  from  the 
United  States  for  the  East  under  the  terms  of  the 
treaty,  and  when  last  heard  of  was  still  doing  serv- 
ice as  a  New  Bedford  whaler. 

A  turn  through  the  old  Charter  Street  Cemetery 
and  our  duty  towards  Salem  is  done.  It  cherishes 
many  old  Salem  names  on  the  modest  slates  with 
their  naif  carvings  and  quaint  epitaphs.  Here  rests 
Habakuk  Bowditch,  the  father  of  the  intellectual 
prodigy.  Here  rests  Mr.  Nathanael  Mather,  a 
brother  of  the  Rev.  Cotton,  who  "  DEC(1  October  Ye 
17  1688.  An  aged  perfon  that  had  feen  but  nineteen 
Winters  in  the  World."  Here  "  lyeth  "  buried  also 
the  body  of  Captain  Richard  More,  a  May  Flower 
pilgrim,  who  died  in  1692.  Back  of  the  cemetery 
lie  the  waste  lands  swept  by  the  great  fire  of  1914, 
for  this  old  graveyard  checked  the  flames  as  they 
leaped  towards  historic  Salem. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

BOSTON:    THE    PEAR-SHAPED 
PENINSULA 

THE  quintessence  of  Boston  lies  within  the  origi- 
nal pear-shaped  peninsula  as  it  existed  before  the 
extensive  filling  in  of  the  coves  and  creeks  which 
indented  its  shores.  Though  possibly  no  city  has 
altered  more  its  physical  conformation,  no  city  has 
lost  less  its  native,  inalienable  personality,  the  whole 
of  which  lies  reserved  within  the  original  pear- 
shaped  peninsula,  compact  and  rich  like  the  kernel 
of  a  nut. 

The  loiterer  with  a  sense  of  cities  will,  as  he  learns 
Boston,  find  little  difficulty  in  distinguishing  the 
kernel  from  the  shell.  He  will  be  able  to  feel 
through  the  soles  of  his  boots  the  inevitable  char- 
acter of  the  old  meandering  cow  paths  in  their 
immense  difference  from  the  straight  and  wide 
thoroughfares  laid  out  by  modern  system  over  the 
"  made  ground."  He  will  recognize  the  streets  that 
pave  the  original  lanes  which  rounded  the  bases  of 
the  several  hills  that  ran  up  from  the  harbour  or 
crossed  their  slopes  at  the  easiest  angles;  the  trail 

307 


308    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

made  by  the  Indians  between  their  huts  on  the 
Shawmut  Hills  and  their  fisheries  in  the  bay.  He 
will  instinctively  feel  where  the  old  involved  shore 
line  of  Shawmut  breaks  away  from  the  vulgar  out- 
reaching  of  the  new  land  of  Boston,  encroaching 
upon  the  surrounding  waters,  as  instinctively  and 
as  surely  as  the  sculptor  feels  when  his  tool  breaks 
cleanly  off  the  green  plaster  of  the  matrix  which 
encloses  the  perfect  object  of  his  art  within. 

If  he  be  a  proper  loiterer  at  all  he  will  under- 
stand at  once  why  the  Bostonian,  more  than  any 
other  sort  of  American,  loves  to  be  asked  the  way, 
loves  to  show  the  short  cuts  which  the  tangle  of  his 
streets  makes  so  agreeably  possible,  loves  to  walk 
himself  through  the  rare  back  alleys  of  the  business 
section,  takes  pride  in  directing  strange  footsteps 
over  the  paths  of  the  Common,  showing  artfully 
how  a  hill  may  be  avoided  or  a  foot  or  two  saved, 
revels,  in  fine,  in  the  whole  amusing  maze,  so  simple 
to  him  and  so  bewildering  to  the  uninitiated.  That 
it  is  —  so  far  as  the  pear-shaped  peninsula  is  con- 
cerned—  a  city  that  takes  learning,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  navigate,  is  in  the  eyes  of  the  native  the 
more  creditable  to  itself  as  showing  a  superior  de- 
gree of  character  and  individuality,  and  the  more 
creditable  to  him  who  can  walk  so  fleetly  and  care- 
lessly, so  precisely  where  he  wants  to  go,  or  who  can 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA    309 

at  the  drop  of  the  hat  with  a  kindly  word  or  a  com- 
petent gesture  restore  confidence  to  the  erring  and 
straying  footsteps  of  an  embroiled  stranger  in  such 
a  district  as,  let  us  say,  Dock  Square.  It  makes 
one  feel  so  clever  and  so  pleasant. 

I  shall  never  forget  an  old,  old  woman  of  whom 
a  genial  Danish  friend  and  I  once  asked  the  way  in 
Paris  to  the  rue  Jacob,  having  somehow  lost  our 
bearings  in  the  heart  of  the  old  quarter  about  the 
Odeon.  She  beamed  upon  us  thrilled  by  the  oppor- 
tunity to  help  us  and  deposited  her  basket  or  what- 
ever upon  the  sidewalk  in  order  to  be  wholly  ours. 
"  Vous  riavez"  she  began  shrilly  and  explicitly  and 
with  much  pantomime,  "  vous  navez  que  suirre 
cette  rue  la,  prendre  la  premiere  a  gauclie,  puis, 
descendre  jusquau  bout  —  et"  with  an  eloquent 
gesture  spreading  it  before  us  like  a  carpet,  "  voild 
la  rue  Jacob! "  She  was  so  munificent  in  her  direc- 
tions that  she  seemed  to  make  us  a  present  of  the 
rue  Jacob. 

I  remember  an  hotel  porter  on  Boylston  Street 
one  summer  evening  showing  me  elaborately  how 
to  cut  off  to  Province  Street  by  taking  the  path  he 
indicated  over  the  Common  and,  "keeping  the  bury- 
ing ground  on  my  right,"  bear  away  towards  the 
desired  section.  The  burying  ground,  consisting 
of  a  handful  of  historic  stones  railed  off,  was  per- 


310    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

suaded  to  remain  quietly  on  my  right  and  the  path 
led  surely  enough  to  the  exact  spot  foretold,  but 
what  diverted  me  was  the  man's  careful  mention  of 
landmarks  by  which  I  should  be  sure  of  myself  as 
I  went  along  —  it  was  all  as  meticulously  enumer- 
ated as  the  rocks  and  channels  of  a  mariner's  chart. 

Sometimes  a  street  cleaner  accosted  in  Washing- 
ton Street  where  a  tangle  presented  would,  like  my 
old  Frenchwoman,  drop  his  handbarrow  to  be  free 
for  pointing  and  smiling  kindly  at  my  "  Would  you 
tell  me  —  ?  "  preface  his  remarks  by  a  hearty  Irish: 
"  Why  shure,"  and  then  give  it  to  me  in  the  plainest, 
fullest  manner. 

Whatever  their  faults  may  be  they  have  at  least 
this  one  grand  virtue,  the  desire  to  make  their  city 
accessible  to  strangers  and,  like  the  Cape  Cod  folks, 
of  whom  Thoreau  speaks,  they  meet  one  another  to 
advantage,  as  men  who  have  at  length  learned  how 
to  live.  And  if  they  glory  a  little  in  the  original  de- 
fects of  their  city  plan,  they,  on  the  other  hand,  do 
their  utmost  to  mitigate  its  disadvantages  and  to 
win  the  visitor  to  an  appreciation  of  its  undeniable 
charm. 

A  modern  map  of  a  great  city  is  scarcely  a  beau- 
tiful thing.  The  early  maps  and  charts,  on  the 
contrary,  were  made  with  real  feeling  by  the  first 
engravers.  Burgiss'  map  of  Boston,  engraved  in 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA    311 

1728,  is  a  work  of  art,  and  I  can  imagine  no  more 
amusing  pastime  for  an  idle  hour  than  to  try  to 
fit  this  charming  souvenir  of  the  past  into  the  large 
chart  now  necessary  to  accommodate  Boston  and  its 
environs,  and  to  recognize  in  that  little  knobbly 
heart  of  the  great  page,  all  black  and  complicated 
with  the  crisscrossings  of  the  ancient  streets  and 
alleys,  the  old  promontory  of  Blaxton's  day,  the 
thriving  town  of  the  Revolutionary  epoch. 

Burgiss'  map  shows  clearly  how  the  warty  old 
pear,  of  the  familiar  figure,  hung  from  the  main- 
land of  Roxbury  by  a  slender  stem,  or  neck,  a  mile 
in  length  and  so  low  and  narrow  between  its  tide 
washed  flats  that  it  was  often  submerged.  Nor 
were  its  most  radical  changes  so  remote  but  that 
Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson  could  remember 
Boston  in  his  college  days  as  not  particularly  differ- 
ing from  the  Burgiss  map,  as  still  a  peninsula  two 
miles  by  one  at  its  widest  part  and  writes  that  the 
water  "almost  touched  Charles  Street  where  the 
Public  Garden  now  is  and  rolled  over  the  flats  and 
inlets  called  the  Back  Bay,  where  the  costliest 
houses  of  the  city  now  stand." 

At  the  time  of  its  earliest  settlement  this  terri- 
tory was  one  of  many  similar  peninsulas  jutting 
into  the  Massachusetts  Bay  and  connected  with  the 
mainland  by  narrow  marshy  necks  doubtless  thrown 


312     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

up  by  the  continuous  action  of  the  tides  and  the 
rivers  which  flow  into  the  ocean  at  this  point. 
When  Governor  John  Winthrop  and  his  company 
came  out  from  England  to  establish  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony  in  New  England,  a  few  iso- 
lated settlers  were  already  living  on  the  promon- 
tories and  islands  of  the  harbour.  We  are  not  to 
forget  that  Robert  Gorges,  a  son  of  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando,  had,  in  1623,  obtained  a  grant  of  some  three 
hundred  square  miles  in  Massachusetts,  which  in- 
cluded the  Boston  peninsula,  which  claim  through 
his  death  had  devolved  upon  his  surviving  brother, 
John  Gorges,  and  that  while  consenting  to  the  grant 
made  to  Endecott  and  his  party  Sir  Ferdinando 
had  expressly  reserved  the  rights  of  his  sons. 

The  royal  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Com- 
pany, granted  to  John  Winthrop  as  governor, 
blandly  ignored  these  prior  claims,  and  the  rapid 
influx  of  colonists,  as  a  result  of  the  general  Puritan 
exodus  which  followed  the  appointment  of  men  of 
such  prominence  in  England  as  Winthrop  and  his 
associate  Thomas  Dudley,  threatened  to  sweep 
away  Gorges'  feeble  hold  upon  the  country. 

More  than  a  year  prior  to  Winthrop's  departure 
John  Gorges  had  sent  a  representative  over  to  look 
after  his  interests  in  New  England  and  had  at- 
tempted to  assert  the  validity  of  his  brother's  claim 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     313 

by  transferring  parts  of  it;  in  addition  to  this  he 
claimed  the  presence  of  his  brother's  tenants  — 
Blaxton,  Maverick,  Walford,  and  others,  scattered 
thereabouts,  as  establishing  his  legal  possession. 
William  Blaxton  had  built  a  house  and  planted  a 
farm  on  the  Shawmut  peninsula;  Thomas  Walford 
was  at  Mishawum,  now  Charlestown;  Maverick 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mystic  River,  now  Chelsea; 
Thomas  Weston  had  attempted  a  holding  at  Wes- 
sagusset,  now  Weymouth;  while  Morton  had 
his  reactionary  settlement  at  Merrymount,  near 
Quincy. 

Endecott,  who  was  a  man  of  drastic  methods  and 
the  provisional  governor  of  the  colony,  attempted 
to  checkmate  Gorges'  move  by  sending  out  from 
the  nest  at  Salem,  in  1629,  fifty  settlers  to  occupy 
Mishawum  on  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  at  this  time  was  restricted  in  its  in- 
terpretation to  what  is  now  the  Boston  Harbour. 

Winthrop  and  Dudley  sailed  in  April,  1630,  and 
within  the  year  came  seventeen  ships  bearing  one 
thousand  immigrants  or  more  to  New  England 
through  the  port  of  Salem,  a  sufficient  tide  to  over- 
flow the  original  settlement  and  to  furnish  the 
nucleus  of  several  new  towns,  sweeping  in  fact  over 
Charlestown,  Boston,  Newtown,  Roxbury,  and 
Dorchester. 


314     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

John  Winthrop  was  chosen  governor  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  Colony  at  the  time  when  the  charter 
and  government  were  transferred  to  New  England 
through  the  initiative  of  the  most  eminent  members 
of  the  Puritan  party  in  England,  who  meeting  at 
Cambridge,  on  August  26,  1629,  resolved  to  lead 
the  pending  wholesale  migration.  The  time  was 
critical,  for  the  Protestants  throughout  Europe  and 
the  English  Puritans  looked  upon  hasty  coloniza- 
tion as  their  only  feasible  means  of  escape  from  an 
intolerable  condition  of  affairs  at  home.  Winthrop 
had  qualities  which  inspired  confidence  in  his  leader- 
ship. He  is  described  as  a  man  of  great  strength 
and  beauty  of  character,  scholarly,  intelligent,  and 
modest,  religious  without  intolerance.  The  grand- 
son of  a  manufacturer  and  only  son  of  a  lawyer,  he 
was  educated  for  the  bar,  practised  law  for  some 
years  and  was  active  in  the  Puritan  movement  in 
his  native  locality.  He  was  from  Groton,  in  Suf- 
folk, and  had  been  three  times  married  when  he 
came  to  this  country,  the  first  time  when  he  was 
but  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  had  many  children 
and  grandchildren.  That  his  motives  in  accepting 
the  governorship  were  mixed  is  argued  from  the 
fact  that  about  one  half  of  his  moderate  income  as 
a  country  gentleman  was  derived  from  the  estate 
of  his  first  wife,  to  be  his  only  during  the  minority 


GOVERNOR   JOHN    W1NTHROP. 

FROM   AN   OLD  PORTRAIT   IN    THE   STATE    HOUSE,    ASCRIBED    TO   VAN    DYCK. 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     315 

of  her  three  sons,  about  this  time  terminated,  so 
that  the  proposition  to  lead  the  colony  in  the  new 
world  came  not  only  as  an  opportunity  to  enjoy  a 
high  position  and  exercise  his  executive  talents  hut 
as  a  practical  solution  of  his  private  affairs  and 
freedom  for  his  Puritan  principles  as  well. 

The  deputy-governor,  Thomas  Dudley,  was  the 
antithesis  of  his  confrere.  Of  ancient  Norman 
family,  the  younger  branch  conspicuous  in  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  Dudley  stands  in  the  early  days  of 
New  England  history  as  the  type  of  narrow- 
minded,  grim  Puritanism,  the  symbol  of  all  that 
was  unlovely  in  the  bleak  and  stern  character  of 
the  Calvinists. 

Armed  with  the  new  charter  John  Winthrop 
and  his  company  set  sail  from  Southampton,  on 
March  29,  1630,  in  the  Arbella,  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  tons'  burden,  with  fifty-two  seamen  and 
twenty-eight  guns,  commanded  by  Peter  Milborne. 
Three  other  ships  sailed  with  them:  the  Talbot, 
the  Ambrose,  and  the  Jewel,  leaving  the  rest  of  the 
fleet  —  the  Charles,  the  Mai/  Flower,  the  William 
and  Francis,  the  Hopewell,  the  Whale,  the  Success, 
and  the  Trial  at  Southampton,  to  follow  later.  The 
Arbella  was  made  admiral  of  the  fleet,  the  Ambrose 
vice-admiral,  and  the  Talbot  rear-admiral. 

With  Winthrop  and  Dudley  came  Charles  Fines, 


316     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

George  Phillipps,  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac  John- 
son, and  William  Coddington  besides  others  who 
later  became  distinguished  in  the  colony.  Great 
merit  was  made  of  the  case  of  the  Lady  Arabella 
Johnson,  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  who 
forsook  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  her  father's 
household  to  accompany  her  husband,  Isaac  John- 
son, on  this  tedious  voyage.  They  were  over  ten 
weeks  en  route  making  land  on  June  12.  Endecott, 
the  acting  governor,  went  out  from  Salem  to  greet 
them  in  the  harbour  and  the  new  governor  and  his 
suite  came  ashore  and  feasted  upon  venison  with 
the  dignitaries  of  the  town,  while  others  of  the  com- 
pany gathered  wild  strawberries  on  Cape  Ann. 

Some  of  the  ladies  of  the  party  were  made  com- 
fortable for  the  night  ashore,  but  the  men  returned 
to  the  Arbella  and  slept  aboard.  Two  days  later 
most  of  the  emigrants  left  the  ship  under  a  part- 
ing salute  of  five  cannons  and  the  Arbella  was 
"  warped  "  into  the  harbour. 

With  the  coming  of  Winthrop,  Salem  ceased  to 
be  the  capital  town  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Col- 
ony and  Endecott  relinquished  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment. The  new  arrivals  found  desperate  conditions 
at  Salem  and  little  to  encourage  remaining  there. 
Not  only  was  Salem  already  planted  and  supplied 
with  as  many  inhabitants  as  she  was  well  able  to 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     317 

receive,  but  food  was  exceedingly  scarce  and  the 
population  much  wasted  by  sickness.  More  than  one 
fourth  of  their  predecessors  had  died  during  the 
previous  winter.  The  faithful  pastor,  Higginson, 
was  declining  and  indeed  died  in  the  month  of 
August  following.  Nor  were  the -passengers  of  the 
Arbella  and  her  sister  ships  immune  from  the  gen- 
eral contamination  of  the  place  and  amongst  the 
first  to  succumb  to  the  disease,  which  before  au- 
tumn had  destroyed  two  hundred  of  the  year's 
total  immigration,  was  the  gentle  Lady  Arabella 
who  had  had  so  little  experience  of  hardships.  She 
died  and  was  buried  in  the  earliest  burial  place  in 
Salem. 

With  conditions  such  as  these  and  the  remainder 
of  the  laden  fleet  from  Southampton  due  to  arrive 
on  any  day,  Governor  Winthrop  lost  no  time  in 
casting  about  for  a  suitable  place  for  his  "  sitting 
down."  Within  five  days  of  his  landing  he  had 
explored  the  Mystic  River  to  its  source  without 
success  and  looked  over  the  resources  of  the  country 
about  the  River  Charles  finally  selecting  the  north 
bank,  known  to  the  Indians  as  Mishawum,  as  a 
favourable  location  for  the  capital  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

We  are  to  be  constantly  reminded  of  the  ex- 
tremely limited  idea  which  the  settlers  grasped  of 


318     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  breadth  of  the  vast  continent  to  which  they 
claimed  possession.  If  Massachusetts  Bay  meant 
to  them  merely  Boston  Harbour,  the  territory  to 
which  they  gave  the  old  Indian  name  they  under- 
stood to  be  only  a  fringe  of  land  along  the  coast 
enclosing  the  harbour,  from  about  Cohasset  on  the 
south  but  extending  above  Cape  Ann  to  about  the 
present  border  of  New  Hampshire.  The  same 
plague  which  had  cleared  the  way  for  the  Pilgrim 
forefathers  had  devastated  the  country  now  looked 
upon  by  Winthrop  and  his  following  and  they 
found  no  Indians  inhabiting  the  peninsulas  either 
of  Shawmut  or  Mattapan  and  only  a  few  at  Misk- 
atvum. 

The  settlement  hastily  decided  upon  at  Mislia- 
ticum  was  none  too  quickly  established  to  relieve 
Salem  in  her  stricken  state  of  the  onus  of  looking 
after  the  immigrants  which  to  the  tune  of  about 
seven  or  eight  hundred  came  flocking  into  port  on 
the  ten  vessels  which  immediately  followed  the  arri- 
val of  the  Arbella.  By  July  8,  all  the  ships  of  the 
fleet  had  arrived  and  on  August  20  came  in  addi- 
tion the  Gift  to  Charlestown  Harbour  making 
eleven  ships  in  all.  Of  these  colonists  some  came 
from  the  west  of  England  but  the  greatest  number 
were  from  the  neighbourhood  of  London. 

Looking  across  the   River  Charles   from*  their 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     319 

temporary  habitation,  the  conspicuous  feature  of 
the  adjoining  peninsula  was  the  three-peaked  sum- 
mit of  the  highest  of  three  hills  which  characterized 
the  landscape.  From  this  peculiar  topographical 
feature  the  English  settlers  gave  to  Shawmut  the 
name  Trimountaine  or  Treamont,  of  which  the 
street  along  the  east  side  of  the  Common  is  a 
pleasant  souvenir. 

At  this  time  William  Blaxton,  a  young  English 
clergyman  supposed  to  have  come  to  America  with 
Robert  Gorges,  who  in  1623  had  attempted  a 
settlement  at  Weymouth,  was  the  sole  inhabitant 
of  this  Trimountaine  towards  which  the  colony 
at  CharlestoAvn  soon  began  to  cast  longing  eyes. 
The  Charlestown  peninsula  lacked  what  was  Shaw- 
mut's  principal  advantage,  the  abundant  springs 
of  clear,  fresh  water,  the  "  living  fountains,"  as  the 
Indians  expressed  it  in  their  native  title. 

Due  to  lack  of  water,  as  some  said,  Winthrop's 
colony  at  Charlestown  suffered  exceedingly  during 
the  summer  of  their  arrival,  and  moved  to  com- 
passion by  the  great  mortality  of  the  colonists, 
William  Blaxton,  who  in  himself  constituted  the 
unique  population  of  Shawmut,  invited  them  over 
to  share  his  preferred  solitude. 

The  first  settler  of  Boston,  William  Blaxton,  is 
described  as  a  man  of  much  culture  and  many 


320     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

eccentricities,  as  "  a  solitary,  bookish  recluse,  about 
thirty-five  years  of  age,  somewhat  above  middle 
height,  slender  in  form,  with  a  pale,  thoughtful 
face,  wearing  a  confused,  dark  coloured,  '  canonical 
coate,'  with  a  broad  rimmed  hat  strung  with  shells 
like  an  ancient  palmer,  and  slouched  back  from  his 
pensive  brow,  around  which  his  prematurely  gray 
hair  fell  in  heavy  curls  far  down  his  neck.  He  had 
a  wallet  at  his  side,  a  hammer  in  his  girdle,  a  long 
staff  in  his  hand." 

The  Hermit  of  Shawmut  stands  out  as  a  solitary 
figure  in  those  days  of  religious  fanaticism.  He 
appears  to  have  come  to  New  England  strictly  in 
quest  of  peace  and  quiet,  and  to  have  eliminated 
himself  from  the  controversies  and  embroilments 
of  this  hectic  time,  selecting  this  uninhabited  pen- 
insula for  his  estate  and  occupying  himself  with  his 
books,  his  roses,  and  his  orchards,  in  peaceful  pos- 
session of  his  hut,  near  an  excellent  spring  on  the 
sunny  slope  of  Beacon  Hill,  near  the  back  basin  of 
the  Charles,  while  his  orchards  covered  what  is  now 
Louisburg  Square. 

Mr.  Blaxton  is  counted  a  divine,  and  Cotton 
Mather  reckons  him  as  amongst  "  some  godly  Epis- 
copalians "  worthy  of  brief  mention  in  his  Magnolia, 
and  relates  that  "happening  to  sleep  first  in  an 
hovel  upon  a  point  of  land  there  (he)  laid  claim 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     321 

to  all  the  ground  whereupon  there  now  stands  the 
metropolis  of  the  whole  English  America,  until  the 
inhabitants  gave  him  satisfaction.  This  man,"  con- 
tinues Mather,  "  was  indeed,  of  a  particular  humour 
and  he  would  never  join  himself  to  any  of  our 
churches,  giving  this  reason  for  it :  '  I  came  from 
England  because  I  did  not  like  the  lord-bishops; 
but  I  can't  join  with  you  because  I  would  not  be 
under  the  lord-brethren/'  This  mot  of  Blaxton's 
sticks  as  fast  to  the  eccentric  parson  as  the  legend 
of  the  "  brindled  bull,"  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes' 
poem,  and  upon  which  he  was  supposed  to  ride 
madly  for  exercise.  Motley  amplified  the  legend 
into  a  picture  of  the  hermit  mounted  upon  a  very 
handsome  mouse-coloured  bull,  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  England,  careering  in  a 
rapid  gallop  along  the  sandy  margin  of  the  cove  — 
the  margin  now  covered  by  Charles  Street. 

The  bull  trained  to  the  saddle  seems  to  have 
caught  the  picturesque  fancy  of  historians  since 
the  days  of  Europa.  The  legend  concerning  the 
wedding  journey  of  John  Alden  and  Priscilla,  pre- 
served in  the  annals  of  Cape  Cod,  runs  that  the 
bridegroom  went  from  Plymouth  to  Barnstable 
riding  on  the  back  of  a  white  bull,  with  a  piece  of 
handsome  broadcloth  for  a  saddle  and  on  his  re- 
turn led  the  bull  carefully  by  a  cord  fastened  to 


322     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  nose  ring  while  Priscilla  rode  resplendent  upon 
the  saddle.  Horses  were  scarce  in  the  early  days 
of  the  colony  and  hulls  and  oxen  were  employed  to 
do  their  work.  We  have  record  of  cattle  being  sent 
out  from  England  to  Strawberry  Bank,  in  Maine, 
to  Cape  Ann,  and  to  Plymouth  between  1620-1630. 

Blaxton's  promontory  which  the  Indians  called 
Shawmut  and  the  English  at  Charlestown  knew  as 
Trimountaine,  resembled  rather  two  islands  than 
a  peninsula.  Anchored  to  the  continent  by  a  long 
thread  of  land,  across  which  the  spray  dashed  at 
high  tide,  it  seemed  in  imminent  danger  of  snapping 
its  slender  cable  and  floating  out  amongst  the  many 
other  islands  in  the  harbour.  The  whole  peninsula 
is  described  as  being  made  up  of  three  hills  and  their 
intervening  valleys.  Beacon  Hill,  or  Trimountaine, 
dominated  the  prospect  rising  in  the  form  of  a 
sugar  loaf  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  feet  above 
the  water  line.  From  its  top  the  view  was  exten- 
sive: to  the  north  Copp's  Hill  presented  its  bold 
front  to  the  ocean,  while  to  the  southeast  the  land 
rose  again  to  the  more  rounded  Fort  Hill,  anciently 
Corn  Hill,  once  the  site  of  an  Indian  fort. 

Within  the  deep  curve  of  the  coast  the  bay  pre- 
sented a  spectacle  of  great  beauty,  its  broad  surface 
dotted  with  an  hundred  verdant  islands,  its  waters 
sheltered  by  the  surrounding  hills,  wooded  to  the 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     323 

banks.  Beyond  the  wider  circle  of  the  Boston  basin 
the  bold  outlines  of  the  Cheviot  Hills,  called  by  the 
natives  the  Massachusetts  or  Mount  Arrow  Plead, 
and  the  ridges  of  the  Wellington  Hills  extended 
irregularly  from  Waltham  towards  Cape  Ann,  on 
the  north. 

At  the  base  of  Beacon  Hill  the  Quinohequin,  the 
river  already  renamed  for  his  princely  patron  by 
Captain  John  Smith,  made  the  last  deep  curve  of 
its  tortuous  course  and  joining  briefly  with  the 
Mystic,  which  embraced  the  upper  side  of  Mish- 
awum,  the  two  mingled  their  waters  and  flowed 
together  to  the  sea. 

Blaxton's  house,  a  picturesque  cottage,  set  in  a 
rose  garden,  stood  at  the  base  of  the  hill  in  a  wide 
glade  studded  with  great  detached  forest  trees,  a 
natural  park  of  about  fifty  acres.  Its  exact  loca- 
tion has  been  variously  described,  but  identified 
with  a  fair  amount  of  certainty  as  situated  on 
the  present  Beacon  Street,  between  Charles  and 
Spruce  streets,  with  the  grounds  set  down  in  Bur- 
giss'  map  of  1728,  as  Banister's  Gardens.  The 
whole  neck  of  land,  containing  over  seven  hundred 
acres  and  four  miles  in  circuit,  he  considered  his 
own. 

When  Governor  Winthrop  and  his  colonists  ac- 
cepted Blaxton's  invitation  to  move  over  to  his 


324    A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

domain  he  was  less  disturbed  since  their  first  settle- 
ment was  a  few  cabins  on  the  eastern  declivity  at 
the  foot  of  a  hill  which  fronted  towards  the  sea. 
This  locality  was  preferred  because  of  its  proximity 
to  Charlestown  and  the  dwellings  of  those  settlers 
who  had  declined  to  cross  the  river. 

The  hermit  of  Shawmut  drove  no  hard  bargain 
with  the  colonists  who  were  ultimately  to  oust  him 
from  his  peaceful  possessions.  The  peninsula  ap- 
pealed to  them  as  a  place  of  settlement  because  of 
its  advantageous  situation  for  commerce  and  de- 
fence, despite  the  fact  of  its  abrupt,  irregular  sur- 
face, its  marshes,  and  uncompromising,  sterile  soil. 
On  September  17,  1630,  John  Winthrop  convened 
the  "court  of  assistants"  and  it  was  decided  that 
'  Trimountaine  shall  be  called  Boston."  The  Lady 
Arabella  and  her  husband  Isaac  Johnson  were  pre- 
sumably honoured  in  this  name,  borrowed  from  old 
Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  England,  from  which  they 
came  and  in  whose  parish  John  Cotton  was  still 
preaching.  The  Lady  Arabella  was  already  dead 
in  Salem,  as  we  know,  and  her  husband,  of  whom 
much  had  been  hoped  in  the  colony,  lived  but  a  few 
days  to  enjoy  the  compliment  conferred  upon  him. 

Blaxton  was  admitted  as  a  freeman  to  the  colony 
in  1631.  Two  years  later  fifty  acres  near  his  house 
on  the  slope  of  the  hill,  were  set  apart  for  his  use 


THE  PEAR-SHAPED  PENINSULA     325 

forever;  but  in  another  year's  time  he  relinquished 
all  but  six  acres  of  this  property  in  a  general  re- 
lease of  the  whole  peninsula.  These  forty-four 
acres  he  sold  for  £30  to  the  community  for  a  train- 
ing field  which  now  comprises  the  Common.  The 
six  acres  of  his  immediate  occupation  formed  later 
the  estate  of  the  painter,  Copley,  and  are  approxi- 
mately bounded  by  Beacon,  Walnut,  Pinckney, 
and  Charles  streets. 

His  separate  tastes  did  not  long  permit  Blaxton 
to  suffer  the  invasion  of  his  solitude,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1635,  he  abandoned  his  farm,  his  house, 
and  his  orchards,  and,  penetrating  into  the  wilder- 
ness of  Rhode  Island,  reestablished  himself  about 
six  miles  from  Providence,  on  that  part  of  the 
Pawtucket  River  which  afterwards  bore  his  name. 
That  he  profited  somewhat  by  his  sojourn  amongst 
the  Winthrop  colonists  is  judged  from  the  record 
of  his  marriage,  in  Boston,  in  163,5,  to  Mistress 
Sarah,  widow  of  John  Stevenson,  Mr.  Endecott 
officiating,  and  the  rumour  that  they  lived  happily 
ever  after. 

Blaxton  lived  to  be  eighty  years  old,  and  died 
in  1675,  one  month  before  the  outbreak  of  King 
Philip's  War,  in  which  his  Rhode  Island  house  was 
burned  and  his  library  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
volumes  and  ten  manuscripts  destroyed.  Roger 


326     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Williams,  his  neighbour,  reported  his  death  to  the 
Boston  colony.  In  the  inventory  of  his  estate  the 
manuscripts  were  valued  at  sixpence  each,  or  five 
shillings  for  the  lot  —  priceless  Americana  contain- 
ing, it  has  been  conjectured,  the  earliest  written 
records  of  Boston. 

William  Blaxton  was  a  singular  and  picturesque 
figure  of  these  early  times,  standing  out  in  passive 
opposition  to  the  upheavals  and  violence  of  those 
who  forced  association  upon  him  and  retreating 
always  rather  than  take  part  in  the  stress  of  his 
day.  To-day  we  should  perhaps  have  called  him 
a  pacifist,  but  in  no  unkindly  sense.  The  figure  of 
the  bull  persists  and  he  is  pictured  as  riding  this 
clumsy  beast  in  his  new  abode,  cultivating  a  two 
hundred  acre  estate,  and  preaching  the  gospel  oc- 
casionally. No  monument  has  been  reared  to  his 
memory;  but,  besides  the  river,  a  valley,  a  town  in 
Massachusetts,  and  a  street  in  old  Boston  are  called 
for  him  and  save  his  name  from  complete  oblivion. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
BEACOX  HILL 

BEACON  HILL,  the  name  indeed  justified  by  the 
physical  fact  of  the  existing,  though  greatly  dimin- 
ished sugar  loaf  of  the  ancient  descriptions,  main- 
tains its  identity,  as  a  localitj^  as  Ludgate  Hill,  in 
London,  is  remembered  by  the  name  of  the  street 
which  runs  over  its  site.  Guarding  the  Common,  its 
pinnacle  culminating  in  the  effulgent  dome  of  the 
classic  State  House  —  Bulfinch's  charming  master- 
piece—  it  seems  to  mark,  for  all  the  westward 
sprawl  of  the  growing  younger  city,  the  expansion 
of  the  metropolitan  circuit,  the  very  central  point 
of  interest  for  loiterers;  while  the  mellow,  glowing 
dome  of  the  historic  edifice  so  dominates  a  prospect, 
from  whose  every  point  it  is  radiantly  visible,  as 
almost  to  justify  Holmes'  cheerful  boast  that: 
"  Boston  State  House  is  the  hub  of  the  Solar 
System." 

Yet  "  Boston,"  says  a  chiding  phrase  in  a  book, 
"  has  been  too  much  presented  in  the  garb  of  her 
past."  It  is  in  a  spirit  of  chastened  contrition,  then, 

327 


328     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  in  the  face  of  this  overwhelming  fact  of  the 
golden  dome  refuting  sublimely  while  one  argues, 
that  one  gives  up  too  insistent  a  dwelling  upon  the 
past  of  a  city  whose  present  pulse  beats  vigorously 
in  a  regenerate  system  towards  progress,  develop- 
ment, and  growth. 

The  phrase  in  the  book  sticks  in  the  memory:  it 
pictures  Boston  as  a  vital,  young  city,  suffering 
from  the  repeated  emphasis  which  most  writers  have 
laid  and  continue  to  lay  upon  its  early  history,  upon 
its  quaintness,  upon  its  literary  associations,  ignor- 
ing its  fabulous  out-reach  into  those  active  suburbs 
which  combine  with  the  city  proper  under  the  new 
name,  "Metropolitan Boston"-  —Metropolitan  Bos- 
ton, including  some  forty-three  cities  and  towns, 
comprising  an  area  of  about  five  hundred  square 
miles,  and  a  population  of  one  and  a  half  millions, 
making  one  great,  homogeneous,  industrial  unit. 

We  have  seen  in  northern  Italy,  even  in  Venice 
itself,  a  much  more  acute  form  of  the  same  con- 
dition—  the  vitality  of  a  city  struggling  against 
tradition,  against  the  cramping  plausibility  of  the 
aesthetic  forces,  which,  while  holding  to  the  charm 
and  elegance  of  a  more  or  less  glorious  past,  op- 
erate towards  stagnation  in  the  life  and  normal 
evolution  of  the  people  and  the  place.  Boston  has 
felt  something  of  this  hampering  influence.  And 


BEACON    HILL  329 

looked  at  from  a  certain  point  of  view  one  becomes 
almost  sympathetic  with  the  healthy,  vigorous  de- 
nial of  every  factor  but  the  present  moment, 
stripped  of  its  traditions  and  free  to  arrive  at  a 
glory  that  may  be  vastly  different  but  that  shall 
be  all  its  own. 

The  changes  that  have  come  to  Boston  have  been 
more  extraordinary  in  their  way  than  those  which 
have  affected  New  York  —  its  growth  has  been 
perhaps  more  phenomenal,  its  conditions  rendered 
peculiar  and  in  a  sense  unwieldy  because  of  the  out- 
standing characteristics  of  the  Puritan  colony  still 
operative,  as  it  would  seem,  in  their  fullest  sense. 

The  whole  region  now  roughly  included  in  the 
term  Metropolitan  Boston  was  originally  sprinkled 
with  small  settlements,  many  of  them  contempo- 
rary with  Boston  town,  but  separate  and  distinct 
from  it  and  from  one  another,  and  each  a  political 
unit  in  itself.  These  became  populous  and  ex- 
panded until  their  boundaries  coalesced.  Yet  many 
of  them,  most  of  them,  persisted  as  independent 
communities,  refusing  to  become  absorbed  in  the 
logical  way  of  cities,  preferring  to  be  villages  and 
towns;  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Brookline  and 
Cambridge,  almost  completely  surrounded  by  the 
territory  of  suburban  Boston  proper,  and  in  some 
cases  much  nearer,  actually,  to  the  heart  of  the  old 


330     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  EXGLAXD 

town  than  several  districts  included  in  the  city 
limits. 

While  such  curious  conditions  exist  in  some  other 
large  cities,  Boston  presents  the  most  conspicuous 
example  of  the  kind,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
the  census  reports  give  so  false  an  idea  of  the  actual 
or  virtual  size  and  population  of  the  Xew  England 
capital.  While  Xew  York  was  able  a  few  years 
ago  to  add  to  its  census  report  the  population  of 
the  whole  of  the  adjacent  large  and  populous  city 
of  Brooklyn,  and  to  increase  its  area  to  ten.  times 
its  original  size  by  the  simple  annexation,  of  four 
contiguous  boroughs,  Boston's  expansion  has  not 
only  been  almost  entirely  by  the  laborious  process 
of  redeeming  marshes  and  mud  flats,  and  making 
land,  but  in  the  early  days  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  town  suffered  actual  losses  of  territory.  In 
1705,  part  of  Boston,  called  Muddy  River,  was 
established  as  Brookline;  in  1739,  Winnissimet, 
Rumney  Marsh,  and  Pullen  Point  withdrew  and 
became  a  separate  entity  under  the  name  of  Chelsea. 

These  numerous  smaller  cities  and  towns  which 
surround  Boston  and  which  depend  upon  the  me- 
tropolis commercially  and  industrially  as  the  centre 
of  their  activities  and  interests,  hedge  and  block  her 
territorial  expansion  within  an  artifically  restricted 
area  of  only  thirty-eight  square  miles;  while  the 


BEACON   HILL  331 

population,  of  which  she  is  the  central  attraction 
and  raison  d'etre,  she  has,  owing  to  her  inability  to 
provide  space  for  its  accommodation,  been  obliged 
to  present,  as  who  shall  say,  to  swell  the  reckoning 
of  these  surrounding  districts,  meanwhile  holding 
her  own  down  to  a  mere  eight  hundred  thousand. 
Cambridge  alone  would,  if  annexed  contribute  one 
hundred  thousand  to  Boston's  total,  and  Brookline, 
with  thirty  thousand  more,  would  be  a  valuable 
addition  as  "  the  richest  town  in  the  world,"  a  super- 
lative that  is  everywhere  conceded. 

It  is  the  fancy  to  describe  Boston  in  four  zones, 
classified  with  precision  by  the  arrangement  of  its 
water  areas.  The  very  heart  or  centre,  the  kernel 
of  the  nut,  is  the  concentrated  business  centre  — 
the  core,  shall  we  say,  of  the  warty  pear?  Tangled 
and  complicated  by  the  oldest  streets,  opened  some- 
what by  the  great  fire  of  the  early  seventies,  yet 
still  odd  and  crazy  enough  in  all  conscience;  with 
blind  alleys,  with  artful  inequalities  made  equal  by 
short  flights  of  steps  leading  from  street  to  street, 
with  strange  backways  for  the  knowing  ones,  con- 
taining the  choicest  remnants  of  Boston's  first 
century  —  who  could  not  love  a  thing  so  full  of 
whimsies,  character,  personality? 

The  skin  of  the  kernel  —  to  choose  the  adaptable 
figure  —  adhering  closely  as  is  proper,  is  formed  of 


the  three  areas  named  in  the  favourite  New  English 
fashion,  for  as  many  points  of  the  compass  —  the 
North  End,  the  South  End,  and  the  West  End, 
distinctions  clearly  and  succinctly  made  and  in  most 
common  parlance  by  the  townsfolk,  so  that  not  to 
master  them  is  to  be  without  command  of  current 
speech. 

Across  bridge  and  ferry  is  the  shell  of  Boston, 
the  three  maritime  suburbs  —  Charlestown,  East 
Boston,  and  South  Boston.  South  Boston  must  be 
understood  as  quite  separate  and  distinct  from  the 
South  End;  in  the  days  of  the  original  peninsula 
it  used  to  be  styled  Dorchester  Neck.  And  without 
the  whole  lies  the  husk  or  fourth  zone  which  includes 
the  truly  suburban  districts  of  Dorchester,  Hyde 
Park,  Roxbury,  West  Roxbury,  and  Brighton. 

Quite  apart  from  all  of  these  divisions  is  yet 
another  section  —  the  stronghold  of  the  great  tra- 
dition, the  last  foothold  of  so-called  fashionable 
life,  driven  from  the  Hill  to  South  Boston,  from 
South  Boston  to  this  extent  of  made  territory  fab- 
ricated from  the  mud  flats  of  the  Charles  River 
basin.  This  was  one  of  the  most  important  as 
well  as  one  of  the  most  lucrative  improvements 
made  to  Boston.  In  the  early  part  of  the  last  cen- 
tury the  Back  Bay  was  an  expanse  of  water  and 
marsh  extending  from  the  foot  of  the  Common  to 


THE   COMMON    AND    BEACON    STREET. 
PHOTOGRAPH    BY    HELEN    MESSINGER    MURDOCH. 


BEACOX    HILL  333 

the  uplands  of  Brookline,  and  from  the  Charles 
River  to  the  Boston  neck,  that  narrow  strip  of  land 
over  which  at  times  the  tides  met  and  flowed.  The 
movement  was  instigated  by  Uriah  Cotton,  who  in 
1814,  organized  and  incorporated  the  Boston  and 
Roxbury  Mill  Corporation,  whose  mill  dam  fol- 
lowed what  is  now  practically  the  line  of  Beacon 
Street  between  Charles  Street  and  Sewall's  Point, 
Brookline.  A  roadway  built  along  the  mill  dam 
and  called  Western  Avenue,  later  became  the  pres- 
ent continuation  of  Beacon  Street.  The  construc- 
tion of  this  dam  had  another  potent  effect  upon 
Boston,  it  brought  the  first  recorded  importation 
of  Irish  labour,  the  nucleus  of  the  Irish  colony, 
which,  rooting  easily,  was  later  to  dominate,  po- 
litically, the  town. 

The  actual  filling  in  of  the  Back  Bay  for  resi- 
dential purposes  was  done  between  1857  and  1894, 
and  added  nearly  six  hundred  acres  to  the  city. 
At  the  outset  of  the  work  Charles  Street  marked 
the  line  of  the  river,  and  the  Back  Bay  ran  along 
the  foot  of  the  Common;  covered  the  Public  Gar- 
den, crossed  Park  Square,  approached  the  shore 
line  of  the  South  Bay  near  Washington  Street  - 
the  original  road  over  the  Xeck  —  and  after  fol- 
lowing its  course  for  a  distance  wandered  back  to 
the  uplands  of  Brookline. 


334     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  Charles  River  basin  occupies  the  centre  of 
the  park  systems  of  both  Boston  and  the  Metropoli- 
tan district,  including  Cambridge,  and  from  it 
grows  that  chain  of  parks  which  is  Boston's  pride. 
As  early  as  1903,  its  banks  were  dedicated  to  this 
purpose,  while  previous  to  that  time  "  Charles- 
bank"  -that  stretch  of  park  along  Charles  Street 
between  the  dam  and  the  Cambridge  Bridge  —  had 
been  created  and  set  apart  by  a  strong  sea  wrall  as 
the  first  part  of  the  then  projected  Charles  River 
Embankment. 

The  whole  of  this  part  of  the  embankment  which 
lies  at  the  base  of  Beacon  Hill  is  built  upon  what 
was  formerly  West  Cove,  and  most  of  the  material 
used  for  its  filling  in  came  easily  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  nearest  of  the  three  original  peaks  of 
the  Tri-Mountain  — West  Hill,  Copley's  Hill,  or 
Mount  Vernon,  as  it  was  styled  according  to  its 
several  proprietors.  A  sea  wrall  had  been  built 
along  the  line  of  the  Charles  River,  west  of  the 
present  line  of  Brimmer  Street,  which  facilitated 
the  reclamation  of  these  flats;  as  the  hill  was  cut 
down  it  was  readily  dumped  into  the  space  between 
the  sea  wall  and  the  shore  line.  The  operation 
lasted  during  the  greater  part  of  the  last  century 
and  was  not  completed  until  1894,  or  thereabouts. 
The  section  thus  made  added  about  eighty  acres  to 


BEACON    HILL  335 

the  area  of  Boston  and  reached  from  Beacon  Street 
to  Lowell  Street,  or  from  the  Common  to  the  North 
Station.  Part  of  the  work  was  carried  on  as  part 
of  the  enterprise  of  the  "Mount  Vernon  Pro- 
prietors," the  successors  to  the  Blaxton-Copley 
estate. 

Across  the  river,  on  the  Cambridge  side,  a  long 
stretch  of  flats  has  been  recently  reclaimed  and  im- 
proved by  the  erection  of  the  handsome  classic 
buildings  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. It  has  been  amusingly  said  that  the  new 
"  Tech  "  does  not  abandon  its  native  soil  in  moving 
across  the  river  from  Boston,  since  the  made  land 
upon  which  it  stands  consists  of  the  excavations 
from  the  Boylston  Street  Subway. 

When  the  embankment  was  completed  the  public 
seemed  loath  to  avail  themselves  of  its  beauty  and  in 
order  to  bring  it  before  their  attention  the  mayor  of 
Boston  had  the  national  fetes  celebrated  there  in- 
stead of  upon  the  Common,  as  is  again  customary. 
At  the  same  time  the  Beacon  Street  dwellers  re- 
sented this  intrusion  upon  the  sacred  privacy  of 
their  outlook,  with  true  Boston  reserve.  Even  now 
the  possibilities  of  the  esplanade  seem  only  to  have 
been  touched  upon.  But  one  meagre  tea-house,  of 
the  stand-up-and-get-it-over  type,  is  to  be  found 
throughout  its  entire  length,  which  might  be  made 


336     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

so  charming  with  pavillions  and  terraces  where 
tea  and  ices  and  cold  drinks—  "tonics,"  as  they 
quaintly  call  them  —  might  be  enjoyed  in  the  true 
Parisian  fashion  on  spring  and  summer  afternoons 
and  evenings. 

If  the  householders  in  Beacon  Street  refused  to 
enjoy  the  prospect  of  a  scheme  to  egayer  their  rear 
view  they  as  bluntly  declined  to  contribute  any 
charm  to  the  somewhat  dreary  expanse  that  their 
own  dark  red  and  intensely  stupid  houses  present 
to  the  loiterer  upon  the  river  or  the  pretty  esplanade 
to  which  they  turn  a  cold,  forbidding  shoulder.  It 
must  be  said  that  the  colour  of  this  modern  brick 
resembles  nothing  so  much  as  the  exposed  outside 
cuts  of  roast  beef  that  have  long  lain  upon  the 
butcher's  block  awaiting  custom,  and  here  upon  the 
uncompromising  backs  of  the  fashionable  houses  of 
the  Back  Bay,  are  no  mitigating  growths  of  vines 
or  ivy,  to  drape  their  unseemliness. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Tech  buildings,  so  hand- 
some in  their  standard  fashion,  seen  close  at  hand 
upon  Cambridge  soil,  fail  of  really  effective  com- 
position from  the  distant  view.  Erected  entirely 
of  concrete,  they  have,  from  across  the  water,  an 
indescribably  chill  sense  of  unrelieved  smoothness, 
of  cold,  rigid  horizontals.  They  have  more  the 
effect  of  models  of  buildings  than  a  realization  of  a 


BEACON   HILL  337 

living,  breathing  university,  teeming  with  the  vi- 
tality of  youth  and  vigour. 

Yet  the  new  Tech  furnishes  all  the  essentials 
lacking  in  the  old  buildings  only  recently  vacated 
on  Boylston  Street.  William  Welles  Bosworth 
was  the  architect;  he  conceived  the  problem  as  a 
scheme  of  courts,  with  the  main  one  opening  to- 
wards the  water  to  receive  the  full  benefit  of  the 
southern  sun,  always  a  consideration  in  this  climate. 
A  dome  over  a  portico  at  the  north  end  of  this  court 
emphasizes  the  character  of  the  group,  the  whole 
so  planned  that  the  various  departments  may  be 
reached  under  a  continuous  roof,  and  with  all  the 
workshops  in  the  rear,  where  future  expansion  may 
be  free  and  service  from  the  railroad  near  at  hand. 

The  architectural  character  of  the  buildings  is 
simple  to  the  point  of  severity,  the  classic  standard 
has  been  followed  in  its  utmost  purity,  but  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  area  covered  —  the  main  building  is  one 
ninth  of  a  mile  in  length  —  calls  for  a  greater  gen- 
eral elevation  and  a  more  important  culmination 
than  is  offered  by  the  low  dome.  Very  charming 
vistas  of  these  buildings  may  be  had  from  the  de- 
scent of  Pinckney  and  Revere  streets,  where  the 
mass  piles  to  better  advantage ;  but  when  seen  from 
directly  across  the  basin  the  ensemble  is  flat  and 
unrelieved.  The  Charles  River  even  at  this  point 


338     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

is  too  turbulent  a  stream  to  reflect  the  architecture, 
as  a  placid  lake  would  have  done  to  its  great  ad- 
vantage, an  effect  doubtless  counted  on  to  increase 
the  apparent  height.  It  is  now  planned  to  intro- 
duce a  pool  of  water  within  the  main  court  itself, 
which  will  reflect  the  building  very  beautifully  and 
contribute  to  its  charm. 

It  seems  rather  a  perverse  bit  of  Puritanism  to 
have  coupled  the  people's  playground  with  the 
count}7  jail,  that  handsome  granite  structure  with 
the  cupola  which  borders  Charlesbank,  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Cambridge  Street,  keeping,  as  it  were,  guard 
upon  the  diversions  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  north 
slope  of  Beacon  Hill,  who  take  great  pleasure  in 
their  breathing  spot. 

The  expansion  «of  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital  has  almost  completely  walled  in  a  dis- 
tinguished old  building,  the  nucleus  of  the  group, 
built  by  Charles  Bulfmch,  in  1821.  One  has  to 
walk  through  Fruit  Street,  past  the  jail  and  on 
beyond  the  modern  brick  additions  to  the  original 
plant,  before  discovering  through  the  grill  of  the 
gateway  to  the  garden,  the  fine  mellow  portico  of 
Ionic  columns  and  the  shapely  dome,  which  appeal 
at  once  as  identifying  the  object  of  one's  quest. 
Chelmsford  granite  is  the  amiable  material,  a  stone 
of  warm  colour  and  delightful  quality;  it  was  pre- 


BEACOX    HILL  339 

pared  for  use,  the  old  descriptions  say,  by  the  con- 
victs of  the  State  Prison. 

Though  the  perfect  symmetry  of  the  edifice  has 
been  hurt  by  the  extension  of  the  wings  and  altera- 
tions to  the  pediment,  made  two  years  after  the 
architect's  death,  the  solid  masonry  and  dignity  of 
the  portico,  its  simple  columns  with  their  graceful 
capitals  partially  covered  with  ivy,  as  well  as  the 
odd  character  of  the  roof,  with  its  four  terminal 
chimneys,  mark  this  sequestered  building  as  one 
of  the  handsome  features  of  the  early  city.  When 
built  it  stood  on  a  small  eminence  open  to  the  south, 
east,  and  west,  the  beautiful  hills  which  surround 
Boston  were  seen  from  its  every  part,  while  the 
grounds  on  the  southwest  were  washed  by  the 
waters  of  the  bay.  There  is  still  an  extensive  bit 
of  the  old,  ample  garden,  and  a  large  luxuriant  tree 
spreads  protecting  branches  across  the  left  of  the 
composition  as  seen  from  the  gateway,  and  fresh, 
green  ivy  clambers  upon  the  foundations  and 
columns. 

The  institution,  next  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hos- 
pital, is  the  oldest  of  its  kind  in  the  country,  having 
been  founded  in  1799,  and  opened  for  patients  in 
1821.  It  stands  upon  what  was  formerly  Prince's 
Pasture,  purchased  by  the  incorporators,  in  1817, 
and  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1818,  the  cornerstone 


340     A  LOITERER  IX  XEW  ENGLAND 

of  the  Bulfinch  building  was  laid  with  impressive 
ceremonies.  McLean  Street  which  runs  at  a  right 
angle  to  the  grounds  on  the  north  side,  preserves 
the  name  of  one  of  the  chief  benefactors. 

At  about  the  time  of  the  first  alterations  the 
operating  theatre,  situated  under  the  dome,  be- 
came famous  as  the  scene  of  the  first  public  demon- 
stration of  the  use  of  anaesthetic  in  operation,  Sul- 
phuric ether  was  employed  and  October  16,  1846 
has  since  been  recorded  as  Ether  Day. 

Beacon  Hill,  like  a  shapely  beehive,  its  summit 
capped  by  the  golden  dome  of  the  State  House, 
its  western  slope  relieved  by  the  excellent  spire  of 
the  Church  of  the  Advent  and  the  earlier  brick 
house  of  worship  on  Mount  Vernon  Square,  pre- 
sents the  really  chic  note  to  the  view  from  the 
wraters  of  the  Charles  River  basin.  Each  street, 
its  earthway  distinctly  visible  from  base  to  summit 
from  the  esplanade,  has  its  peculiar  allure,  but 
Mount  Vernon  Street  appeals  especially  as  the 
most  wayward  of  those  which  mount  directly 
towards  the  crest. 

The  quaint  old  meeting-house,  which  juts  out  of 
line  at  the  corner  of  Charles  Street,  its  tenure  im- 
minently threatened  by  the  radical  improvements 
on  foot  in  this  quarter,  was  built  in  1807,  by  the 
third  Baptist  Society  of  Boston  and  so  occupied 


BEACOX   HILL  341 

until  1877  when  the  society  merged  with  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  now  on  Commonwealth  Avenue. 
At  this  time  the  free  negro  settlement  occupied  the 
"  dark  side "  of  the  Hill,  the  north  slope  below 
Myrtle  and  Revere  streets,  where  before  and  after 
the  Civil  War  had  been  the  centre  of  anti-slavery 
agitation.  The  hill  dwellers  of  the  south  side  fol- 
lowed the  New  England  tradition  of  ignoring  what 
displeased  them,  and  between  the  smug  complac- 
ency of  the  sunny  side  and  the  dark  border  of 
pathetic  squalor  and  tragedy  the  line  was  sharply 
drawn,  as  it  is  indeed  drawn  to  this  day  against 
the  unfortunate  foreigners  who  struggle  for  foot- 
hold there.  Men  there  are  who  remember  class  riots 
between  the  boys  of  both  camps,  in  which  the  little 
blacks  were  always  routed  and  sent  back  to  their 
own  side  to  seethe  in  sedition  against  the  upper 
hand  of  "  respectability,"  and  the  seeds  of  abolition 
and  anti-slavery  were  nurtured  in  these  steep, 
crowded  streets  of  the  inhospitable  hive. 

A  little  brick  meeting-house  in  Smith  Court 
which  ran  out  of  Belknap  Street  (now  Joy)  about 
half  way  down  the  swift  descent  below  Myrtle 
Street,  was  the  refuge  of  a  small  band  of  agitators 
who  had  been  barred  from  the  privileges  of  Faneuil 
Hall,  on  a  cold  night  in  January,  1832,  and  here  in 
the  school-room  of  the  small  negro  church  was 


342     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

organized  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society 
whose  work  was  to  effect  so  much.  Here  on  this 
occasion  Garrison  spoke  his  remarkable  prophecy: 
"  We  have  met  to-night  in  this  obscure  school-house; 
our  numbers  are  few  and  our  influence  limited ;  but 
mark  my  prediction:  Faneuil  Hall  shall  ere  long 
echo  with  the  principles  we  have  set  forth.  We 
shall  shake  the  nation  by  this  mighty  power." 

Its  detachment  from  its  environment  marked  by 
the  character  of  the  simple,  substantial  building, 
with  its  long,  rounded  windows,  the  house  has 
passed  to  the  use  of  the  present  residents  of  the 
quarter  as  a  Jewish  synagogue,  and  an  inscription, 
in  Hebraic  characters,  on  the  end  wall  towards  Joy 
Street,  calls  attention  to  its  present  service.  A 
marble  slab  on  the  north  front  commemorates  the 
activities  of  Cato  Gardner,  an  African  native  who 
raised  a  considerable  part  of  the  money  for  the 
erection  of  the  church  and  by  his  enterprise  inspired 
others  of  the  congregation  to  do  the  same.  A  com- 
mittee of  white  men  was  invited  to  superintend  the 
building,  completed  and  dedicated  in  1806. 

When  the  Baptists  gave  up  the  Mount  Vernon 
Square  church  they  sold  it  to  the  leading  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  congregation  of  Boston,  and 
the  pretty  old  building  with  its  stopper-like  steeple, 
many  of  its  features  suggesting  Bulfinch  designs, 


BEACON    HILL  343 

became  known  to  the  witty  ones,  for  obvious  rea- 
sons, as  the  Ink  Bottle,  and  when  service  was  over 
and  the  congregation  began  to  disperse,  it  was  the 
waggish  fashion  to  say  that  the  Ink  Bottle  had  up- 
set. Part  of  the  land  for  this  church  the  Baptists  pur- 
chased by  subscriptions  to  the  undertaking  and  part 
was  given  by  the  Mount  Vernon  proprietors.  The 
house  is  handsomely  constructed  of  brick,  seventy- 
five  feet  square,  exclusive  of  the  tower,  on  which  is 
a  cupola  with  a  bell,  the  first  used  by  a  Baptist 
society  in  Boston.  This  bell  rings  the  hours  with 
a  thin,  brazen  timbre  delightfully  suggestive  of  old 
times  and  old  places.  Its  voice  sounds  the  pitch  of 
this  picturesque  locality. 

If  the  Technology  buildings  across  the  river  lend 
charm  to  the  prospect  as  one  descends  Revere  or 
Pinckney  streets,  from  the  brow  of  the  hill,  the  old 
coloured  meeting-house  in  its  widened  setting,  im- 
parts a  still  rarer  quality  to  the  view  from  the 
whole  extent  of  Mount  Vernon  Street  —  perhaps 
the  most  beautiful  vista  in  Boston  —  beautiful  be- 
cause it  is  so  absolutely  unimpaired  by  any  modern 
intrusion.  The  chain  of  gardens  before  the  houses 
on  the  north  side  of  the  way  lead  sweetly  down  to 
the  discreet  retirement  of  Louisburg  Square,  its 
line  of  Boston  dwellings,  with  bowed  fronts,  looking 
out  upon  the  exclusiveness  of  the  railed  enclosure 


344     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  green,  saturated  with  an  atmosphere  of  the  Old 
World.  Above  the  square  the  pitch  of  the  hill  de- 
clines abruptly  into  the  disorder  of  Charles  Street, 
at  which  point  a  divergence  to  the  left  throws  the 
old  church  into  prominence,  its  tower  silhouetted 
against  the  spire  of  the  Church  of  the  Advent. 

Louisburg  Square  is  described  as  the  site  of 
Blaxton's  famous  spring,  as  well  as  his  orchard. 
In  1834  it  was  enclosed  and  given  its  present  name 
to  commemorate  the  capture  of  the  French  for- 
tress during  the  French  and  English  wars  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  position  of  Louisburg 
upon  Cape  Breton  Island,  commanding  the  en- 
trance to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  gave  the  town 
great  importance  in  war  time.  The  whole  island 
had  been  secured  to  the  French  by  the  peace  of 
Utrecht  in  1713,  and  the  French  government 
erected  a  formidable  fortress  enclosing  and  com- 
manding the  excellent  harbour,  making  it  the  chief 
stronghold  of  France  in  America,  using  it  as  a 
rendezvous  for  their  fleets  and  privateers. 

The  port  became  an  ever  threatening  danger  to 
the  New  England  fishermen  on  the  Banks  on  ac- 
count of  which,  in  174.5,  Governor  Shirley  of  Mas- 
sachusetts induced  the  colony  to  undertake  the  re- 
duction of  the  post.  An  escort  of  one  hundred 
New  England  vessels  accompanied  Colonel  Wil- 


BEACOX    HILL  345 

liam  Pepperell  in  command  of  3,600  men,  mostly 
from  Massachusetts,  and  joining  a  British  squad- 
ron under  Commodore  Warren,  the  undertaking 
was  accomplished.  Three  years  later,  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Louisburg  again 
reverted  to  France,  but  in  1758  the  town  was  re- 
captured by  a  large  force  under  General  Amherst 
and  Admiral  Boscawen. 

Under  French  dominion  Louisburg  was  a  flour- 
ishing centre  for  the  fisheries,  but  as  an  English 
province  it  has  deteriorated  into  a  mere  stopping 
place  for  steamships. 

The  form  of  Boston,  said  an  ancient  writer,  is 
like  a  heart,  built  within  a  cove  or  bay  which  lies 
between  two  strong  hills  on  the  sea  and  overtopped 
by  a  third  forming  natural  facilities  for  fortifica- 
tion. The  hills  which  overlooked  the  sea  were  well 
guarded  by  artillery  and  battery,  while  up  upon  a 
third  stood  a  beacon  and  "  lowd  babbling  guns," 
to  give  notice  "by  their  redoubled  echo  to  all  their 
sister  townes." 

The  three  hills  referred  to  were  Copp's  Hill, 
Fort  Hill,  and  Sentry  or  Beacon  Hill.  The  high- 
est peak  of  the  latter  rose  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea;  the  rugged 
bluffs  of  Fort  Hill  stood  eighty  feet  high;  and 
Copp's  Hill,  a  level  plain  upon  its  summit,  was 


346     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

fifty  feet  above  the  water.  Except  for  the  three 
oldest  burying  grounds  of  the  town,  a  few  ancient 
buildings  and  some  narrow  streets  in  the  North 
End,  the  Boston  of  its  first  century  has  been  ob- 
literated ;  its  topography  has  been  completely  trans- 
formed. Fort  Hill,  its  locality  recorded  by  the 
curve  of  Franklin  Street,  while  Fort  Hill  Square 
holds  the  name,  was  levelled  off  between  1866  and 
1872;  Copp's  Hill  has  been  much  modified,  though 
easily  identified  by  the  cemetery  which  marks  its 
site;  while  Beacon  Hill  lends  its  name  to  a  well- 
defined  district  or  neighbourhood. 

The  golden  dome  of  the  State  House,  in  which 
the  beauty  of  the  Common,  the  Garden,  the  whole 
peninsula  culminates,  marks  a  point  but  little 
higher  than  was  the  original  crest  of  the  Tri- 
Mountaine,  as  seen  from  the  Charlestown  settle- 
ment, or  in  the  days  of  the  colony  and  town.  The 
tip  of  the  hill  was  levelled  off  and  dumped  sum- 
marily into  the  old  Mill  Pond,  which  appears  upon 
the  early  maps,  as  an  important  contribution  to  the 
soil  needed  for  its  filling  in.  The  summit  of  the 
original  hill  was  level  with  the  rail  at  the  base  of 
the  State  House  dome. 

Beacon  Hill  was  the  centre  of  the  three  peaks  of 
the  original  "mountain."  Pemberton  Square,  Louis- 
burg  Square,  and  the  State  House  Extension  oc- 


BEACON    HILL  347 

cupy  the  approximate  localities  of  these  peaks. 
At  Pemberton  Square  was  Cotton  Hill,  named  for 
the  famous  Colonial  preacher,  John  Cotton,  who 
resided  near  it  in  a  house  given  him  by  the  youth- 
ful governor  of  Massachusetts,  Sir  Harry  Vane. 
At  Louisburg  Square  was  Copley's  Hill,  or  West 
Hill,  comprising  part  of  Blaxton's  lot. 

The  highest  peak  of  the  mountain  was  found 
immediately  useful  to  the  early  settlers  as  a  look- 
out, and  was  from  this  use  called  Gentry  or  Sentry 
Hill,  until  1635,  when  a  beacon  was  set  upon  it  to 
signal  the  adjacent  towns  in  case  of  danger.  The 
beacon  was  a  primitive  affair,  described  as  a  tar 
barrel  elevated  upon  the  top  of  a  mast.  Occasion- 
ally replaced,  it  kept  watch  for  generations  on  the 
summit  of  the  hill,  until  1789,  when,  being  blown 
over  by  a  storm,  Charles  Bulfinch,  then  a  youth 
just  returned  from  a  tour  of  England,  France, 
and  Italy,  designed  the  monument  of  which  a 
recent  copy  marks  approximately  the  original 
site. 

The  Bulfinch  design  consisted  of  a  column  of  the 
Koman  Doric  order,  built  of  brick,  covered  with 
stucco,  with  foundation  and  mouldings  of  stone, 
the  shaft  crowned  by  a  gilded  eagle,  carved  in  wood, 
supporting  the  arms  of  America.  Instead  of  bear- 
ing aloft  the  danger  signal  in  time  of  war,  it  bore 


348     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

inscriptions  to  commemorate  "that  train  of  events 
which  led  to  the  American  Revolution,  and  finally 
secured  liberty  and  independence  to  the  United 
States."  With  the  demolition  of  the  top  of  Beacon 
Hill  went  the  destruction  of  the  column,  interest- 
ing not  only  as  an  early  work  by  a  celebrated 
architect,  but  as  the  first  public  monument  erected 
to  commemorate  the  events  of  the  Revolution.  The 
eagle,  or  a  copy  of  it,  was  placed  over  the  presi- 
dent's chair  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  State 
House  and  the  tablets  were  cared  for  by  being 
set  in  a  corridor  wall.  When  the  present  monu- 
ment was  erected,  casts  of  them  were  inserted  in 
place. 

This  monument  was  the  first  of  the  improve- 
ments which  were  to  transform  Beacon  Hill  from 
a  state  of  almost  pristine  simplicity  to  the  abode  of 
substantial  elegance.  Until  about  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  the  hill  was  largely  noted  as  the  resi- 
dence of  two  country  gentlemen  —  John  Singleton 
Copley,  the  painter,  and  Thomas  Hancock,  a 
wealthy  merchant.  Beacon  Street  was  a  lane  which 
led  past  their  estates.  At  the  head  of  the  lane  —  a 
tablet  marks  its  site — -stood,  until  1863,  the  famous 
Hancock  mansion,  built  in  1737,  of  Braintree 
boulders,  squared  and  hammered,  with  old  freestone 
trimmings.  Thomas  Hancock  was  a  native  of 


PORTRAIT   OF   JOHN    HANCOCK,    BY    JOHN*    SINGLETON    COPLEY. 
OWNED  BY  THE  CITY   OF  BOSTON. 


BEACON    HILL  349 

Braintree,  and  he  chose  the  stone  of  his  locality  for 
the  material  of  his  sumptuous  dwelling.  His  house 
was  the  first  building  in  New  England  to  be  built 
of  granite,  for  King's  Chapel  was  not  built  until 
1749;  it  was  typical  of  the  style  of  its  period  and  in 
its  day  quite  the  feature  of  the  town,  standing  well 
back  within  a  garden,  enclosed  by  a  stone  wall, 
topped  by  a  wooden  fence,  and  thickly  planted 
with  shrubbery  and  trees.  The  house  passed  from 
its  builder  to  his  nephew,  John  Hancock,  the 
governor. 

Before  1770  Copley  had  purchased  twenty  acres 
or  more  bordering  the  Common,  between  Walnut 
Street  and  the  water.  Failing  to  foresee  the  destiny 
of  the  hill,  the  painter  consented  to  sell  to  the 
Mount  Vernon  proprietors  his  estate  for  a  mere 
fraction  of  its  value  when  he  left  Boston  to  take 
up  his  residence  in  London.  Finding  the  value  of 
the  land  enormously  increased  by  the  project  of  the 
new  State  House,  he  sent  his  son,  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
to  this  country  to  claim  restitution;  but  all  efforts 
to  recover  an  adjustment  failed,  and  the  younger 
Copley,  in  1796,  executed  a  deed  of  the  property 
to  Jonathan  Mason  and  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  a 
rising  young  lawyer  and  politician.  Otis  built 
upon  part  of  the  land  secured  from  Copley  that 
extremely  characteristic  square  dwelling,  with  a 


350     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

cupola,  half-way  down  Mount  Vernon  Street  on 
the  north  side.  It  stands  back  in  a  garden  with 
entrances  on  the  two  sides.  A  wide  carriage  way 
leads  back  to  a  paved  court  with  an  interesting 
wall  fountain,  quite  palatial  in  character. 

The  Society  for  the  Preservation  of  New  Eng- 
land Antiquities  has  recently  acquired  the  first  of 
three  mansions  which  Harrison  Gray  Otis  built  for 
himself  on  Beacon  Hill.  It  stands  retired  behind 
a  row  of  modern  shops  on  Cambridge  Street,  and 
may  be  seen  from  the  whole  descent  of  Hancock 
Street  as  one  goes  towards  the  North  Station.  It 
was  built  in  the  same  year  as  the  State  House,  and 
its  interior  woodwork,  much  of  it  remarkably  pre- 
served through  a  century  of  changing  ownerships, 
makes  its  second  story  drawing-room  one  of  the 
handsomest  in  Boston.  The  house  had  ample 
grounds,  outbuildings,  and  stables,  and  must  have 
ranked  well  in  its  day.  Its  restoration  disclosed 
many  samples  of  old  wall  paper  uncovered  in  the 
course  of  repairs,  including  two  with  landscape 
designs  on  the  second  floor. 

Otis  was  a  very  considerable  figure  in  Boston  in 
his  day.  He  is  described  as  a  man  of  winning  per- 
sonality, keen  intellect,  and  a  gift  of  oratory  which, 
coupled  with  the  advantage  of  influential  relatives 
and  connections,  made  his  rise  quick  and  certain. 


BEACOX    HILL  351 

He  had  the  genius  for  money-making,  and  before 
he  was  thirty  years  of  age  was  ready  to  build,  upon 
this  site  acquired  from  his  father-in-law,  William 
Foster,  this  beautiful  house. 

He  had  been  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in 
1786,  and  soon  became  one  of  the  leading  lawyers 
in  Boston.  He  speculated  in  foreign  commerce,  in 
western  lands,  in  property  in  Maine  and  Georgia, 
and  in  local  real  estate.  As  a  member  of  the 
Federal  party,  the  gentleman's  party  of  the  time, 
he  made  his  political  debut,  and  by  a  remarkable 
speech  in  Boston's  town  meeting,  in  1796,  was  able 
to  sway  a  people,  whose  traditions  were  all  anti- 
Federalist  and  Democratic,  to  an  overwhelming 
vote  of  confidence  in  Washington's  administration. 
Otis  received  instant  recognition  from  his  party 
and  was  appointed  United  States  District  Attorney 
and  later  member  of  congress. 

During  the  time  that  he  spent  in  Philadelphia, 
in  John  Adams'  administration,  the  Cambridge 
Street  home  became  a  summer  residence  where 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Otis  dispensed  a  liberal  hospitality 
to  people  of  importance.  In  1801,  however,  he 
gave  up  his  seat  and  sold  the  mansion  to  Thomas 
Osbourne,  betaking  himself  to  the  Mount  Vernon 
Street  house,  already  built.  Six  years  later  he 
erected  his  third  town  house,  which  stands,  its  ex- 


352     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

terior  practically  unaltered,  facing  the  Common.1 
In  this  house  he  died  suddenly  in  1848. 

Meanwhile  the  town  of  Boston  had  bought  from 
the  numerous  heirs  of  Thomas  Hancock  that  por- 
tion of  his  estate  known  as  the  governor's  pasture, 
and  Charles  Bulfinch  had  been  chosen  architect  of 
the  new  State  House  to  be  erected  thereon.  Sev- 
eral old  prints  exist  which  show  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  the  State  House  and  the  Bulfinch  monu- 
ment behind  it,  standing  perilously  upon  the  brink 
of  the  ragged  remnant  of  the  hill  as  it  underwent 
excavation  for  the  filling  in  of  the  Mill  Pond.  The 
two  bore  each  other  company  until  1811,  when  the 
town  sold  the  land  on  which  the  monument  stood, 
and  it  was  taken  down  and  the  hill  destroyed. 

Bulfinch  was  born  in  Boston  in  1763,  and  was 
therefore  thirty-two  years  of  age  when  he  received 
the  commission  for  the  designing  and  building  of 
the  Boston  State  House.  This  was  shortly  after 
his  return  from  Europe,  where  he  had  spent  some 
years  after  graduating  from  Harvard,  and  he  had 
already  shown  his  ability  by  his  treatment  of  the 
Franklin  Crescent,  a  complete  innovation  in  this 
country,  founded  upon  the  work  of  the  Adam 
brothers,  the  fashionable  Scottish  architects,  who, 
in  1768,  had  laid  out  the  Adelphi  Terrace  in  Lon- 

1  No.  45  Beacon  Street. 


BEACOX    HILL  353 

don,  showing  a  novel  treatment  of  an  entire  block 
of  buildings  under  one  architectural  scheme.  The 
Franklin  Crescent,  with  its  long  row  of  simple 
Colonial  houses,  broken  in  the  centre  by  a  more 
elaborate  building  which  marked  the  entrance  to 
Arch  Street,  stood  practically  intact  until  18.55, 
but  was  totally  destroyed  before  the  great  fire  of 
the  early  seventies,  which  gutted  this  old  section 
of  the  city. 

At  the  time  of  the  projection  of  the  State 
House  there  were  no  buildings  of  any  size  or  pre- 
tensions in  the  country.  A  few  public  buildings 
of  good  taste  stood,  it  is  true,  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  but  nothing  approaching  the  style 
and  pretensions  of  the  Massachusetts  capitol. 
Washington  was  in  its  incipiency,  the  National 
Capitol  merely  a  suggestion  in  the  minds  of  the 
planners  of  that  city.  It  must  therefore  have  been 
with  the  utmost  pride  and  joy  that  young  Bulfinch 
threw  himself  into  the  work  of  creating  the  building 
which  was  to  stand  out  prominently  amongst  the 
features  of  its  epoch. 

The  extensive  alterations  which  have  disclosed 
and  threatened  its  workmanship  have  shown  the 
rare  solidity  and  honesty  of  the  execution;  had  it 
been  otherwise  the  building  would  never  have  sur- 
vived its  experiences  at  the  hands  of  unscrupulous 


354 

politicians,  whose  one  great  desire  has  been  to  do 
away  with  the  encumbrance  upon  Beacon  Hill  and 
replace  it  by  a  modern  practical  building.  Their 
persistence  has  accomplished  much,  unhappily,  yet 
the  stand  was  taken  at  the  acute  moment  [in  1895] 
when  only  the  most  urgent  expressions  of  public 
opinion  saved  the  historic  edifice  from  complete 
demolition. 

The  chaste  exterior  of  the  original  State  House, 
"  a  sort  of  Adam  architecture  of  the  noblest  type," 
as  Coleridge,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England, 
wrote  a  friend  in  1883,  is  readily  distinguishable 
from  the  extensive  marble  wings  of  yesterday, 
which  destroy  the  symmetry  of  the  Beacon  Street 
front,  and  the  earlier  extension,  whose  logical 
approach  is  from  Bowdoin  Street.  The  Bulfinch 
bijou  is  thus  in  a  manner  encased,  dishonoured, 
overwhelmed  by  the  bulk  of  the  modern  additions. 

While  the  choice  relic  speaks  most  eloquently 
and  beautifully  for  itself,  and  has  within  itself  been 
most  carefully  and  reverently  considered,  curiously 
enough  a  theme  so  fruitful  has  inspired  no  follower 
of  the  monumental  work  done  by  Mr.  Glenn  Brown 
for  the  National  Capitol,  and  by  Mr.  I.  N.  Phelps- 
Stokes  for  the  City  Hall  of  New  York,  to  produce 
a  permanent  and  worthy  record  of  the  original 
treasures  of  the  Massachusetts  State  House. 


THE  NEW   HALL  OF  REPRESENTATIVES   STATE   HOUSE  EXTENSION. 
SHOWING  THE   SACRED   COD   IN   PLACE   OPPOSITE  THE    SPEAKER'S   CHAIR. 


STATUE   OF    GEORGE    WASHINGTON, 
BY   SIR  FRANCIS  CHANTREY,  LONDON, 
1826.      DORIC   HALL,    STATE    HOUSE. 


BEACON    HILL  355 

The  gilded  dome  offering  itself  as  a  glowing 
target  for  destroyers,  it  seems  the  more  tragic  that 
so  little  of  technical  description,  of  facsimile,  or  of 
photograph  exists  in  safe  portfolios  to  serve  as 
record  of  the  perfect  taste  and  proportions  of  the 
building,  of  the  details  of  mouldings  and  decora- 
tions, in  case  of  a  disaster.  Such  photographs  as 
exist  fail  utterly  to  give  the  true  facts  and  beauty 
of  the  rooms  upon  whose  execution  Charles  Bui- 
finch  spent  his  most  loving  care,  thought,  and 
workmanship. 

Of  the  laying  of  the  cornerstone  *the  annals  of 
the  town  preserve  a  pretty  picture.  The  stone, 
decorated  with  ribbons,  was  carried  upon  a  truck, 
drawn  to  its  place  by  fifteen  white  horses,  each 
horse  with  a  leader,  and  laid,  on  July  4,  1795,  by 
Governor  Adams,  assisted  by  Paul  Revere,  master 
of  the  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  Massachusetts. 

As  completed  by  Charles  Bulfinch,  the  State 
House  was  a  red  brick  building  with  balconies  on 
the  north  and  south  fronts.  Its  columns,  pilasters, 
cornices,  and  cupola  were  of  wood,  painted  white; 
its  fascias,  imposts,  keystones,  and  lintels,  white 
marble.  Many  of  the  details  of  the  building  are 
interesting.  The  shafts  of  the  twelve  Corinthian 
columns  of  the  front  portico  are  formed  each  from 
a  single  pine  tree,  and  with  one  exception  are  still 


356     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

perfectly  sound.  There  is  a  tradition  that  the 
timber  was  seized  by  a  Yankee  coasting  schooner 
off  the  Canadian  shore,  and  that  the  enterprising 
captain  brought  his  plunder  to  Boston,  where  it  was 
assigned  a  conspicuous  place  on  the  first  public 
building  begun  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War.  Other  authorities  say  that  these  trees  used 
for  the  columns,  together  with  the  wood  of  which 
the  cone  on  the  "  lanthorn  "  is  carved,  were  brought 
from  the  shores  of  a  lake  in  Maine,  floated  down  to 
Boston  Harbour,  carted  to  the  hill  and  carved  on 
the  spot.  One  of  the  original  columns  has  been 
replaced,  and  the  newer  substitute  is  built  up  in 
three  sections  about  three  inches  thick,  in  the 
modern  fashion. 

The  dome  was  at  first  made  entirely  of  wood, 
but  in  1802,  as  a  precaution  against  fire  and  the 
inroads  of  weather,  it  was  sheathed  with  copper, 
purchased  as  the  records  show,  from  Paul  Revere 
and  Son.  Originally  the  dome  was  painted  lead 
colour,  while  the  cone  —  still  there  —  on  the  top  of 
the  lanthorn  was  gold,  as  now. 

Until  1825  the  compact  little  building  retained 
this  aspect,  then  the  bricks  were  painted  white, 
while  the  colour  of  the  dome  was  unchanged ;  later 
the  building  was  painted  yellow  with  white  trim- 
mings; but  it  was  not  until  1874  that  the  dome  was 


BEACON   HILL  357 

covered  with  gold  leaf,  while  the  white  facade  was 
restored  to  accord  with  the  marble  wings,  added  in 
1915. 

Inside  there  is  still  much,  despite  the  many  dese- 
crations of  its  original  simplicity,  to  recall  the  in- 
terior as  Bulfinch  conceived  it  when  he  returned 
fresh  from  Europe  filled  with  the  traditions  of 
Palladio  and  the  classic  revival  in  England,  under 
the  Adam  brothers. 

Doric  Hall,  upon  which  the  central  door  opens, 
retains  the  spirit  of  its  period.  The  iron  and  plaster 
columns,  of  the  Doric  order,  are  exact  replicas  of 
the  wooden  originals,  taken  out  to  make  the  in- 
terior fireproof,  and  a  marble  pavement  follows  the 
original  wood  flooring.  Lafayette  was  received 
here  upon  his  visit  to  the  country  in  1824,  and 
President  Monroe  was  guest  of  honour  at  a  banquet 
in  this  room  in  1817,  when  he  was  so  impressed  by 
the  new  State  House  that  he  invited  its  architect 
to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  National  Capitol, 
in  Washington. 

The  standing  figure  of  Washington,  in  classic 
drapery,  was  made  by  Sir  Francis  Chantrey,  an 
Englishman,  in  London,  in  1826,  and  was  given 
to  the  state  in  1827  by  the  Washington  Monu- 
ment Association.  It  is  a  cold,  formal  piece  of 
work;  but  the  figure  is  chaste  and  dignified,  and, 


358     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

regarded  purely  from  the  standpoint  of  decoration, 
it  makes  a  harmonious  note  in  its  niche  opposite 
the  main  doorway. 

The  executive  chambers,  on  the  third  floor,  stand 
as  the  choicest  of  their  kind  in  the  country.  For 
design,  proportion,  decoration,  and  detail,  and  as 
rooms  typical  of  their  epoch,  they  compare  favour- 
ably with  rooms  of  a  similar  character  in  the  old 
French  palaces.  They  moved  our  English  visitor, 
Coleridge,  to  enthusiasm  for  "  perfect  taste  and 
proportion:  every  interspace  the  right  size,  every 
moulding  right,  every  decoration  refined." 

The  Council  Chamber  is  unspoiled,  it  bears  every- 
where the  stamp  of  Bulfinch  taste.  Opposite  is 
the  chamber  of  the  governor  in  the  same  style  and 
equally  effective. 

But  these,  handsome  and  dignified  as  they  are, 
merely  prepare  the  mind  for  the  really  glorious 
Hall  of  Representatives  and  Senate  Chamber  of 
the  old  times,  occupying  the  central  portion  of  the 
structure  and  the  original  east  wing.  The  old 
Representatives'  Hall  is  now  the  Senate  Chamber, 
a  magnificent  room,  fifty-five  feet  square  and  fifty 
feet  in  height,  richly  finished  in  wood,  painted 
white,  and  covered  by  an  exquisite  domed  ceiling 
whose  design  and  colour  suggest  the  rarest  Wedg- 
wood, the  most  perfect  hand  embroidery  of  its 


BEACOX   HILL  359 

epoch.  This  ceiling  is  a  perfect  circle,  in  the  form 
of  a  gentle  sloping  segment  of  a  sphere.  In  the 
centre  are  three  concentric  circles  of  varied  orna- 
ment —  the  centre  marked  by  the  heart  of  a  flower, 
the  hands  of  applied  ornament  alternating  with  an 
open-work  design,  pierced  for  ventilation.  From 
this  central  motif  the  concave  surface  is  marked 
in  large,  widening  grooves,  the  base  of  each  ter- 
minating with  a  circle  of  ventilators  of  delicate 
rosettes  in  beautiful  design,  the  whole  surrounded 
by  a  wreath  of  garlands  and  draperies  of  leaves  in 
applied  modelling.  At  the  corners,  filling  the 
spaces,  are  circles  enclosing  emblems  of  agriculture, 
etc.,  the  whole  of  the  ceiling  ornaments  and  details 
of  the  balconies  and  other  decorations  are  white 
against  a  dark  note  of  cobalt  blue,  indescribably 
effective. 

The  light  from  above  comes  from  three  oval 
windows  in  the  back  and  front,  this  room  occupying 
the  entire  central  portion  of  the  Bulfinch  building, 
its  lower  windows  opening  upon  the  main  balcony 
behind  the  Corinthian  columns.  Under  these  oval 
windows  were  opened  the  present  little  galleries  in 
1864.  Over  the  north  gallery,  above  the  presi- 
dent's chair,  is  perched  a  carved  and  gilded  eagle, 
either  the  original  or  a  copy  of  the  bird  which  sur- 
mounted the  Bulfinch  monument.  It  holds  in  one 


360     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

claw  the  shield  of  the  state,  and  from  its  beak 
flutters  a  ribbon  with  the  inscription:  "God  save 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts." 

Upon  the  modern  chandelier  is  fixed  a  metal  fish 
to  recall  the  original  carved  and  painted  "  Sacred 
Cod,"  which  during  the  time  that  this  room  re- 
mained the  Hall  of  Representatives  hung  opposite 
the  eagle,  suspended  from  the  arch.  When  the 
new  hall  was  built  the  representatives  moved  their 
emblem  to  the  larger  modern  room,  where  it  now 
hangs  over  the  ladies'  gallery,  facing  the  speaker's 
desk. 

The  Sacred  Cod  dates  back  to  the  days  of  the 
Old  State  House,  certainly  to  1773,  when  there  is  an 
entry  on  the  records  to  show  that  Thomas  Crafts,  Jr., 
was  paid  fifteen  shillings  for  painting  it ;  and  again, 
in  1797,  twelve  shillings  was  paid  to  Samuel  Gore 
for  painting  the  fish  before  it  was  transported  from 
the  Old  State  House  to  the  new. 

The  same  colour  scheme  is  carried  out  in  the  old 
Senate  Chamber,  now  the  Senate  Reception  Room, 
in  which  Bulfinch  completed  his  plan  of  a  Doric 
interior.  This  room  is  thirty  feet  wide  by  sixty  feet 
long,  with  a  height  to  the  top  of  the  arched  ceiling 
of  thirty  feet.  This  ceiling,  quite  as  wonderful  as 
that  in  the  larger  hall,  is  in  the  form  of  a  canopy 
supported  by  columns  and  pilasters,  running  across 


BEACON    HILL  361 

the  width  of  the  room,  and  leaving  spaces  at  the  two 
ends  of  the  canopy,  behind  the  pillars,  where  the 
ceiling  is  level  with  the  capitals.  The  canopy  is 
marked  off  into  large  squares  bordered  with  hand- 
some mouldings,  the  centres  being  composed  of 
large,  sumptuous,  fully  expanded  lotus  blooms, 
alternated  with  ornamental  rosettes  in  the  open- 
work design,  similar  to  those  in  the  Hall  of  Rep- 
resentatives. The  exotic  beauty  of  these  two  ceil- 
ings is  absolutely  a  thing  to  dream  about.  The 
handsome  pair  stand  to  prove  the  supremacy  of 
Bulfinch,  to  justify  his  reputation  as  the  greatest 
American  architect  of  his  epoch. 

Of  the  portraits  of  the  governors  which  hang  in 
this  room,  many  of  them  upon  hooks  and  nails 
driven  into  the  pure  woodwork  of  the  pilasters, 
but  one  —  that  of  Winthrop,  attributed  to  Van 
Dyke(?)  —  is  worthy  of  its  setting,  as  an  original 
canvas.  Most  of  the  others  are  copies. 

There  are  many  documents  of  public  interest  in 
the  State  Library  housed  in  the  new  building,  but 
none  of  more  thrilling  suggestion  than  the  origi- 
nal Bradford  manuscript,  Of  Plimoth  Plantation, 
whose  adventurous  history  has  been  dwelt  upon  in 
an  earlier  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XV 


ROMANTIC  Bulfinch  associations  crowd  in  upon 
the  loiterer  on  Beacon  Hill.  Curiously  little  ac- 
count is  taken  of  them,  but  this  only  emphasizes 
their  inherent  savour  as  the  "  real  thing."  When 
Stuart  was  asked  why  he  did  not  put  his  name  to 
his  portraits,  he  replied  that  they  were  signed  all 
over,  a  statement  that  Bulfinch  might  have  made 
regarding  his  houses  on  the  Hill. 

By  many  small  architectural  tricks  shall  one 
know  them,  within  and  without  —  small  tricks  that 
bear  out  the  larger  evidence  of  graceful  design 
and  perfect  proportion.  There  is  such  evidence  as 
the  character  and  beautiful  mulberry  tone  of  the 
hand-made  bricks,  laid  in  the  Flemish  bond,  the 
bricks  turned  alternately  lengthwise  and  crosswise 
to  break  joints  neatly  and  give  variety  to  the  sur- 
face ;  there  is  the  still  more  important  evidence  of 
the  "  string  course,"  a  band  of  freestone  which, 
running  across  the  house,  above  the  first  story,  ef- 
fectively holds  together  the  sills  and  entablatures 
of  the  same  material ;  and  there  is  the  charming  de- 

362 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          363 

vice  of  the  first-story  windows  recessed  within  shal- 
low brick  arches. 

The  interiors  have  the  Georgian  dignity  carried 
out  in  the  best  materials.  Bulfinch  used  solid  San 
Domingo  mahogany  doors  with  silver  knobs,  often 
mahogany  balusters,  newel  posts,  hand-rails;  his 
mantels  followed  the  severity  of  the  London  de- 
signs, were  scrupulously  shallow  in  accordance  with 
their  original  use,  strictly  as  a  ledge  from  which 
the  cloaks,  or  mantles,  were  depended  before  the 
log  fire.  They  show  no  frills,  such  as  delighted  the 
skill  of  Mclntire,  the  wood  carver  of  Salem.  His 
fireplaces,  constructed  of  three  solid  pieces  of  free- 
stone, have  unmistakable  character  and  draw  to 
perfection. 

Almost  the  only  detached  mansion  left  in  the  old 
part  of  the  city,  the  second  dwelling  of  Harrison 
Gray  Otis,  on  Mount  Vernon  Street,  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  authentic  Bulfinch  houses. 
The  gray  paint  conceals  the  old  mulberry  colour  but 
has  not  destroyed  the  texture  of  the  bricks,  and  has 
itself  taken  on  a  bloom  of  age.  The  romantic  ap- 
peal of  the  house  itself  is  heightened  by  a  knowl- 
edge that  its  architectural  features  preserve  those 
of  the  famous  Franklin  Crescent,  designed  by  Bul- 
finch, and  of  which  a  few  prints  exist  to  speak  for 
its  elegance.  The  ornamentation  of  the  facade  is 


304     A   LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

similar,  the  windows  of  the  lower  floor  are  set  within 
shallow  recesses  of  brick;  from  the  level  of  the 
second  floor,  bound  by  the  string  course,  pilasters 
rise  to  the  roof,  and  at  the  top  is  a  balustrade. 

For  Jonathan  Mason,  one  of  the  Mount  Vernon 
Proprietors,  associated  with  Otis,  Bulfinch  built  the 
three  houses  standing  at  the  top  of  "  Mount  Ver- 
non "  -the  name  is  thus  cut  in  handsome  lettering 
in  the  string  course  of  Dr.  Nichols'  house,  the  cen- 
tral one  of  the  three,  readily  recognized  by  its  en- 
trance, which  faces  down  Mount  Vernon.  When 
built  this  was  a  front  entrance,  meant  to  face  Wal- 
nut Street,  which  it  was  expected  would  be  cut 
through,  where  it  now  stops  short.  Though  the  ex- 
terior has  been  somewhat  embellished  and  modified, 
the  Nichols'  house  is  in  a  very  perfect  state  of 
preservation  and  presents  most  of  the  original  fea- 
tures as  Bulfinch  left  it, 

In  the  rear  are  the  large  woodsheds,  built  to 
hold  the  bulky  fuel  for  the  open  fireplaces  through- 
out the  rooms,  and  these  open  upon  a  paved  court 
in  which  may  still  be  seen  the  arched  outline  of  a 
covered  passage  in  the  old  brick  party-wall  through 
which  the  adjoining  house  had  access  to  a  deep 
well,  the  only  source  of  water  for  both.  When  the 
project  of  continuing  Walnut  Street  down  the 
northern  slope  of  the  hill  was  abandoned,  the  ad- 


THE    BULFIXCH    TRAIL  365 

joining  house,  famous  as  the  one-time  residence  of 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  our  ambassador  to  Eng- 
land under  Lincoln,  which  had  also  been  built  to 
face  the  cross  street,  found  itself  completely  walled 
in  on  the  western  side,  and  dependent  upon  its  left- 
hand  neighbour  not  only  for  water  from  his  well, 
but  for  a  right  of  way  to  the  street.  In  the  final 
settlement  of  this  predicament  the  middle  house 
ceded  a  piece  of  its  garden  for  an  entrance  and  with- 
drew the  privilege  of  the  well.  The  ornamental 
doorway  and  balcony  of  the  Adams  house  are,  of 
course,  later  additions,  made  when  the  entrance  was 
changed  from  the  old  to  the  present  front. 

Three  old  houses  still  standing  at  the  top  of  Bea- 
con Street,  next  to  the  State  House  property,  were 
built  by  Bulfinch,  while  several  others  facing  the 
Common,  as  well  as  a  pair  on  the  south  side  of 
Chestnut  Street  and  a  group  of  three  very  ancient 
ones  on  the  north  side,  show  how  vigorously  his 
influence  was  felt  in  the  designs  of  the  epoch. 

In  its  present  state  of  cheerful  decadence  it  is 
hard  to  imagine  Bowdoin  Square  as  ever  having 
been  a  rather  reserved  and  altogether  substantial 
residential  stronghold.  The  quiet  streets  that  slope 
down  to  its  centre,  it  is  true,  carry  the  traditions  of 
the  Hill  and  are  more  or  less  stately  and  imposing, 
despite  their  obvious  obliquity.  The  one  landmark 


366    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

which  remains  upon  the  square  itself  to  fix  its 
former  elegance  is  the  enlarged  and  altered  resi- 
dence of  Kirk  Boott,  now  the  ponderous  Revere 
House,  built  upon  a  large  pasture,  known  as  "Val- 
ley Acre,"  owned  by  Mr.  Thomas  Bulfinch,  the 
grandfather  of  the  architect. 

Bulfinch  was  born  across  the  way,  in  1763,  the 
site  obliterated  by  that  vastly  uninteresting  granitic 
mass  that  follows  the  curve  of  the  square.  Dr. 
Thomas  Bulfinch,  the  father  of  the  architect,  had 
inherited  from  his  father  the  large,  wooden  house, 
with  a  gambrel  roof,  of  which  a  water-colour  sketch 
is  preserved  in  a  private  collection.  This  bears  out 
the  description  of  the  homestead,  a  little  withdrawn 
from  the  street,  with  a  row  of  Lombardy  poplars 
in  front,  a  gate,  opening  on  a  white  marble  walk, 
leading  to  the  front  door.  The  four-acre  lot,  in- 
cluding the  site  of  the  Kirk  Boott  house,  lay  across 
the  square  on  the  slope  of  the  hill,  one  of  its  boun- 
daries recorded  in  the  pleasant  ascent  of  shady 
Bulfinch  Street,  with  its  cool  brick  houses,  its  bits 
of  old  balconies. 

The  Revere  House  has  pretty  well  outlived  the 
prestige  of  having  been  the  hostelry  at  which  the 
"Prince  of  Wales"  put  up  upon  his  visit  to  the 
city  in  1860.  It  is  said  that  Bulfinch  built  the  orig- 
inal dwelling,  but  I  have  been  unable  to  verify  the 


THE   BULFINCH    BUILDING,    MASSACHUSETTS    GENERAL    HOSPITAL. 
FROM   AN  ETCHING  BY   SEARS  GALLAGHER. 


367 

statement.  At  all  events  it  must  have  undergone 
many  changes  from  its  original  form,  and  the  Kirk 
Boott  house  "as  was"  has  been  lost  in  the  shuffle. 
The  hotel  still  presides,  however,  with  an  air  over 
the  square,  and  in  a  large,  theatrical  way,  announces 
its  antiquity ;  for  its  features,  such  as  the  great  col- 
umns which  support  the  roof,  the  sleeping  bronze 
lions  upon  the  side  porch,  as  well  as  the  fluted 
columns  within  the  imposing  entrance,  and  the  elab- 
orate stair  rails  are  a  bit  overdone. 

Bulfinch  scarcely  chose  architecture  as  a  profes- 
sion, he  rather  drifted  into  it  as  a  result  of  natural 
proclivities,  a  strong  innate  sense,  quickened  by 
some  years  of  travel  abroad,  whither  his  father  sent 
him,  upon  his  graduation  from  Harvard.  His 
father  and  his  grandfather  before  him  had  had  this 
experience,  and  seem  to  have  considered  it  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  a  young  man's  education.  The 
little  that  is  known  of  the  younger  Bulfinch's  en- 
joyment of  his  opportunity  comes  down  through  his 
letters.  They  speak  briefly  of  his  impressions  of 
the  great  monuments  of  France  and  Italy,  of  visits 
to  London  and  parts  of  rural  England,  where  he 
had  relatives.  In  Paris  he  had  letters  of  introduc- 
tion from  Lafayette  and  Jefferson,  but  his  time 
there  appears  to  have  been  brief,  while  he  made  a 
tour  of  Italy  in  four  months,  giving  his  itinerary  — 


368     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Genoa,  Pisa,  Siena,  Viterbo,  Rome,  Florence, 
Bologna,  Parma,  Piacenzo,  Milan,  etc.  The  brief 
memoir  which  he  left  to  his  children  enumerates 
without  giving  his  impressions  of  what  he  saw  nor 
of  what  effect  it  may  have  had  upon  his  future  work, 
except  as  he  remarks :  "  These  pursuits  did  not  con- 
firm me  in  any  habits  of  buying  and  selling;  on  the 
contrary,  they  had  a  powerful  adverse  influence  on 
my  whole  after-life." 

He  returned  to  Boston  in  1787  and  for  the  next 
three  or  four  years  experimented,  settling  at  noth- 
ing definite  to  indicate  the  bent  of  his  mind,  until 
the  success  of  the  monument  on  Beacon  Hill  at- 
tracted attention  to  his  abilities.  This,  as  we  know, 
came  down  in  1811,  and  of  the  architect's  other 
work,  which  preceded  the  building  of  the  State 
House,  nothing  now  remains.  He  seems  to  have 
worked  as  an  amateur  until  circumstances  forced 
him  to  do  otherwise,  and  his  plans  of  the  Boston 
Theatre  and  the  Holy  Cross  Church  were  gratui- 
tous. The  Boston  Theatre,  in  recognition  of  his 
services,  presented  the  architect  with  a  gold  medal 
bearing  upon  its  face  the  design  of  the  original 
front  in  relief.  It  was  a  detached  building  at  the 
corner  of  Federal  and  Franklin  streets,  beauti- 
fully graceful  and  appropriate  in  the  classic  style 
following  the  European  models.  The  projecting 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          369 

centre,  faced  with  four  Corinthian  columns  support- 
ing an  entablature  and  pediment,  was  mounted 
over  a  plain  basement  with  an  arched  entrance, 
flanked  by  a  single  square  opening  on  each  side. 
The  order  was  carried  over  the  whole  front,  pierced 
by  three  large  Venetian  windows  in  the  principal 
story.  These  windows  were  provided  with  bal- 
conies which  gave  a  certain  festal  or  gala  air  to  the 
structure,  suitable  to  its  purpose.  The  medal  en- 
titled Mr.  Bulfinch  to  a  seat  in  the  theatre  during 
life,  "  benefit  nights  excepted." 

This  theatre,  built  in  1793,  was  the  first  that  Bos- 
ton knew.  A  petition  to  open  a  playhouse  pre- 
sented to  the  legislature  of  1790  had  failed;  a  try- 
out  of  a  performance  in  a  stable,  two  years  later, 
was  closed  by  the  authorities;  and  it  was  not  until 
the  following  year  that  a  conveyance  of  land  was 
made  to  the  "  trustees  of  the  Boston  Theatre,"  of 
which  Mr.  Bulfinch  was  one.  The  theatre  opened 
with  a  performance  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  with  Charles 
Stuart  Powell,  manager.  Robert  Treat  Paine 
wrote  the  prologue.  For  a  while,  out  of  deference 
to  those  who  opposed  it,  no  performance  was  given 
on  the  evening  of  the  week-day  meeting. 

Only  four  years  after  it  was  built  the  Boston 
Theatre  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and,  in  1798,  Bul- 
finch rebuilt  it  after  a  much  plainer  design  on  the 


370    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

same  ground  plan.  This  time  he  lavished  his  care 
upon  the  interior,  which  was  described  as  of  "  un- 
paralleled elegance." 

This  theatre  was  part  of  a  general  improvement 
of  Franklin  Street  opened  by  Bulfinch  as  one  of  the 
important  thoroughfares  of  a  new  section  of  the 
city,  built  upon  what  had  till  lately  been  Town 
Cove.  Town  Cove  was  the  great  indentation  on  the 
east  side  of  the  pear-shaped  peninsula,  which  lay 
between  the  headlands  of  Copp's  and  Fort  Hills. 
It  was  the  port  of  the  early  Colonial  town,  and 
reached  inland  to  Franklin  and  Federal  Streets,  to 
Kilby  and  State  Streets,  to  the  present  tangle  of 
Dock  Square.  After  Long  Wharf  was  finished 
little  was  done  to  extend  the  city  over  Town  Cove 
until  1780,  when  there  was  some  further  filling 
about  Dock  Square  and  at  the  foot  of  Merchant's 
Row. 

One  of  the  early  distilleries  had  occupied  the  site 
of  the  theatre,  standing  upon  the  marsh  land  par- 
tially drained  into  a  fish  pond  located  upon  the  gar- 
dens of  a  Mr.  Barrell,  whose  estate  was  on  Summer 
Street.  Ihirgiss'  map  of  Boston,  in  17*28,  shows 
these  gardens  enclosed  by  Summer  Street,  Cow 
Lane,  Long  Lane  (now  Federal  Street),  and  Bis- 
hop's Lane,  since  changed  to  Hawley  Street.  The 
Boston  Directory  map  for  1789  shows  that  no 


THE    BULFIXCII    TRAIL          371 

streets  were  as  yet  laid  out  in  this  region  which 
Bulfinch  and  two  associates  planned  to  treat  in  a 
manner  that  was  to  make  it  one  of  the  distinctive 
features  of  the  city. 

The  handsome  curve  of  Franklin  Street,  pre- 
served to  this  day,  cannot  fail  to  attract  an  obser- 
vant loiterer,  though  the  whole  of  the  tontine  block 
erected  by  the  architect  upon  its  southern  side  has 
been  destroyed.  Bulfinch  designed  this  curve,  en- 
tering with  enthusiasm  into  a  scheme  proposed  to 
him  by  William  Scollay  and  Charles  Vaughan,  who, 
in  1796,  induced  him  to  join  with  them,  as  his 
memoir  says,  "  in  the  purchase  of  Mr.  Barrell's  ex- 
tensive garden  and  pasture  ground,"  and  projected 
a  plan  for  building  a  row  of  houses  in  crescent  form, 
which  would  give  scope  to  his  architectural  ability 
and  at  the  same  time  promised  an  alluring  profit  to 
his  purse. 

Undeniably  successful  as  architecture,  the  ven- 
ture failed  wholly  as  business,  and  resulted  disas- 
trously to  Bulfinch,  who,  his  partners  failing  him, 
risked  everything  to  carry  it  to  a  conclusion.  Bos- 
ton was  not  yet  ready  to  support  so  large  a  num- 
ber of  expensive  dwellings;  forced  sales  followed 
and  Bulfinch  found  himself  bankrupt,  his  personal 
integrity  leading  him  to  surrender  all  his  property, 
including  the  dower  of  his  wife,  so  that,  as  he  says, 


372     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

he  found  himself  reduced  to  his  personal  exertions 
for  support.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  been  a  dilet- 
tante ;  from  now  on  necessity  urged  Bulfinch  to  be- 
come a  professional,  and  it  is  perhaps  in  a  sense  due 
to  the  failure  of  Franklin  Crescent  that  he  achieved 
so  brilliant  a  success. 

From  1793  to  1855  the  crescent  stood  intact,  fol- 
lowing the  outer  curve  of  Franklin  Place,  from 
Hawley  to  Devonshire  streets.  Though  the  idea 
was  of  English  origin,  it  is  rather  interesting  to 
note  that  Franklin  Crescent  seems  to  have  ante- 
dated anything  of  the  sort  actually  carried  out  in 
London,  the  most  prominent  and  familiar  of  these 
curves,  Regent's  Quadrant,  not  having  been  cut 
through  the  old  streets  above  Piccadilly  until  after 
1812.  From  the  fact  that  a  plan  of  two  semicircles 
facing  each  other,  with  a  park  space  in  the  centre, 
intended  as  a  continuation  of  Portland  Place,  had 
been  designed  by  the  Adam  brothers,  and  was  in 
existence  at  the  time  that  Bulfinch  visited  London, 
it  has  been  argued  that  his  so  similar  scheme  was 
based  upon  that  of  the  Scottish  architects. 

The  original  design,  as  Bulfinch  planned  it,  pro- 
vided for  two  crescents,  facing  each  other  and 
enclosing  an  elliptical  grass  plot.  The  failure  to 
obtain  all  the  necessary  land  compelled  the  substi- 
tution of  a  straight  line  for  the  northerly  crescent, 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          373 

but  the  lower  side  was  completed.  It  comprised 
sixteen  three-story  houses,  built  in  pairs,  the  steps  of 
each  pair  running  sidewise  to  the  street  and  meet- 
ing upon  a  mutual  railed  landing  over  a  high  base- 
ment. A  handsome  pair  of  old  houses  in  Allston 
Street,  of  the  same  epoch,  shows  exactly  this  ar- 
rangement of  entrances,  which  in  the  long  curved 
repetition  must  have  been  very  effective.  The  pair 
of  houses  at  each  end  was  brought  forward  beyond 
the  line  of  the  others,  as  pavilions,  and  the  central 
structure,  intended  as  a  repository  for  the  Boston 
Library,  took  the  form  of  an  ornamental  archway, 
and  was  carried  higher  than  the  rest  by  means  of 
a  low  attic,  supported  by  columns  and  crowned  by  a 
pediment.  The  favorite  Venetian  window  occu- 
pied the  space  between  the  central  columns  in  the 
middle  of  the  block,  and  a  half-moon  window,  re- 
peating the  arch  of  the  other,  stood  over  it  in  the 
attic  story.  Under  the  columns  was  a  wide  cen- 
tral arch  for  vehicles  and  two  smaller  passage- 
ways for  pedestrians;  over  the  driveway  hung  for 
years  the  old  sign,  "Arch  Street,"  to  indicate  the 
street  to  which  it  led.  An  excellent  cut  of  the 
whole  appeared  in  the  Massachusetts  Magazine, 
for  1794. 

An  old  print  of  Franklin  Street,  in  1855,  brings 
out  conspicuously  the  famous  urn,  within  the  en- 


374     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

closure  before  the  houses,  given  by  Bulfinch  as  a 
memorial  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  died  at  about 
the  time  that  the  street  was  laid  out,  and  after 
whom  the  crescent  was  named.  The  Franklin  Me- 
morial, sometimes  called  "  Franklin's  Grave," 
figures  largely  in  contemporary  decoration,  and  is 
well  known  to  collectors. 

Bulfinch's  first  church  in  Boston,  long  since  de- 
stroyed as  too  small  for  its  congregation,  was  the 
Holy  Cross,  built  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathe- 
dral in  1803.  It  stood  on  Franklin  Street,  just 
below  the  crescent,  and  together  with  the  theatre 
must  have  made  this  an  imposing  and  consistent 
neighbourhood.  The  style  of  the  cathedral,  instead 
of  following  the  Wren  type  with  the  slender  spire, 
was  an  adaptation  of  the  Italian  Renaissance 
model  as  made  fashionable  in  England  by  that 
earlier  architect,  Inigo  Jones.  But  with  the  Eng- 
lish as  well  as  the  New  English  the  steeple  habit 
died  hard,  if  it  died  at  all,  and  popular  prejudice 
demanded  some  compromise,  so  the  high  cupola  or 
belfry  came  into  vogue. 

There  are  three  such  churches  left  standing  in 
Boston,  all  of  the  vintage  of  1804-1806,  and  all  of 
the  same  general  type — the  Charles  Street  Church, 
so  prettily  set  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Vernon,  the  old 
West  Church,  in  Cambridge  Street,  now  a  branch 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          375 

of  the  Public  Library,  and  the  Xew  North,  now  St. 
Stephen's,  at  the  foot  of  Hanover  Street,  near  the 
East  Boston  ferry.  Of  these,  the  latter,  built  in 
1804,  follows  most  closely  the  architecture  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  and  is  the  only  church  still  standing  in 
Boston  known  to  a  certainty  to  have  been  the  de- 
sign of  Bulfinch.  The  building  has  been  enlarged 
by  extending  the  back  wall  to  the  depth  of  three 
windows,  a  rain  spout  conveniently  marks  the  join, 
and  the  interior  has  been  much  embellished  to  suit 
the  present  occupants,  all  the  old  woodwork  either 
painted  or  destroyed,  and  an  elaborate  reredos 
placed  against  the  Puritanical  back  wall  to  simu- 
late an  altar;  but  the  old  front  walls  stand  un- 
touched, presenting  a  brick  fa9ade,  decorated  with 
stone  pilasters,  a  series  of  attic  pilasters  over  them, 
a  tower  and  a  cupola,  terminated  by  a  handsome 
vane. 

The  West  Church,  built  in  1806,  has  sometimes 
been  thought  a  Bulfinch  design,  but  the  newspapers 
of  the  day  credit  the  plan  to  Asher  Benjamin. 
Though  no  longer  used  for  religious  purposes,  its 
setting  has  been  so  handsomely  preserved  by  the 
library  and  the  interior  so  scrupulously  kept  to  its 
old  purity,  while  the  very  clock,  given  by  John 
Derby  at  its  dedication,  hangs,  intact  and  going, 
upon  the  organ  loft,  that  one  may  find  much  satis- 


376     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

faction  in  loitering  therein  amongst  the  diligent 
readers  of  the  neighbourhood. 

Early  accounts  of  these  churches  are  amusing. 
We  read  of  the  West  Church  that  it  was  "  congre- 
gational," the  typical  New  England  generalization; 
that  it  received  the  Scriptures  "  as  the  only  rule  of 
faith  and  practice;"  that  (in  1829)  "its  present 
pastor  stands  aloof  from  the  parties  which  divide 
the  Christian  world,  and  adopts  no  other  name  than 
Christian  to  designate  its  faith."  The  music  is  de- 
scribed as  "distinguished  for  its  chasteness  and 
skill."  The  New  North  was  dedicated  by  a  "  con- 
gregational society  "  considered  to  be  "  Unitarian 
in  sentiment";  the  Charles  Street  Church  was  or- 
ganized by  a  "Baptist  society." 

One  understands  better  the  logic  of  the  appar- 
ently paradoxical  "  New  Old  South "  to  place  the 
church  on  Copley  Square,  when  one  knows  that 
there  was  built,  in  1814,  by  Charles  Bulfinch,  as  a 
finishing  touch  to  the  locality  for  which  he  had  done 
so  much,  the  New  South  Church,  on  Church  Green, 
at  the  junction  of  Summer  and  Bedford  streets. 
The  church  was  built  of  the  hammered  Chelmsford 
granite,  then  coming  into  vogue,  and  partly  on  ac- 
count of  its  fine  masonry,  but  chiefly  for  its  richness 
of  design  and  interior,  was  considered  the  hand- 
somest of  Bulfinch's  efforts  in  this  line.  Its  oc- 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          377 

tagonal  plan  offered  an  amusing  variety  in  con- 
struction, and  its  portico  of  Doric  columns,  its  stor- 
ied steeple  culminating  in  a  lofty  and  graceful  spire 
gave  a  new  note  of  elegance  to  one  of  the  older  resi- 
dential streets  of  Boston.  Lined  with  handsome 
residences  shaded  by  tall  trees,  Summer  Street  in 
those  days  presented  the  typical  umbrageous  vista 
of  the  New  England  town.  The  ground  was  high 
and  level,  and  at  the  end  of  the  street,  beyond  the 
church,  could  be  seen  the  harbour.  In  1868  busi- 
ness having  crowded  out  the  old  houses  and  dissi- 
pated the  congregation,  the  old  church  was  demol- 
ished. The  fire  of  the  early  seventies  obliterated 
every  trace  of  its  former  character. 

The  reconstruction  of  the  Chickering  house,  on 
Tremont  Street,  according  to  an  original  Georgian 
design,  gives  a  somewhat  glorified  hint  of  Colonnade 
Row,  built  by  Bulfinch,  in  1810,  between  West  and 
Mason  streets,  facing  the  Mall.  Though  not 
treated  with  the  formality  of  Franklin  Crescent, 
this  row  of  period  houses,  united  in  feeling  by  slen- 
der pillars,  supporting  a  line  of  shallow  balconies 
with  wrought  iron  railings,  overlooking  the  Com- 
mon, might  have  been  a  bit  of  transported  London. 
A  few  of  the  brick  fronts  may  still  be  selected  as 
original,  from  the  conglomerate  mass  of  alteration 
and  adaptation  which  has  destroyed  every  vestige 


378     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  original  architecture.  If  New  York  named  its 
Colonnade  Row  "La  Grange  Terrace"  after  La- 
fayette's home  in  France,  Boston  was  not  to  be  out- 
done, and  for  a  few  years  after  the  general's  tour  of 
America,  this  portion  of  Tremont  Street  was  known 
as  Lafayette  Place,  the  name  still  remembered  in 
Lafayette  Mall  that  stretches  southward  on  the 
Common  from  Park  Street. 

Had  Boston  cherished  all  the  work  which  this 
architect  lavished  upon  the  city,  what  a  treasure  of 
colonial  architecture  it  would  present!  All  his 
youthful  work  was  here,  all  his  ancestry,  associa- 
tions, his  interests,  were  with  Boston.  He  was  se- 
lectman from  1789  to  1793,  and  chairman  of  the 
board  from  1797  to  1818,  and  his  popularity  was 
such  that,  in  1815,  towards  the  close  of  his  long  term 
of  office,  when  he  and  two  others  of  the  board  failed 
of  reelection,  every  elected  member  immediately 
resigned,  and  on  a  second  trial  Mr.  Bulfinch  and 
the  others  were  reinstated  by  decided  majorities. 

From  1818  to  1830  Bulfinch  lived  in  Washington, 
as  architect  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  Capitol, 
which  had  been  burned  by  the  British  in  1814. 
When  he  returned  to  Boston  he  was  an  old  man. 
His  last  conspicuous  building  was  the  State  House, 
at  Augusta,  Maine,  built  after  a  reduced  pattern 
of  the  Boston  type.  The  most  conspicuous  differ- 


THE   BULFINCH   TRAIL          379 

ence  in  the  two  buildings  is  in  the  cupola  and  pedi- 
ment. The  pediment  in  the  latter  is  the  full  width 
of  the  portico  and  rests  directly  upon  it,  while  the 
dome  is  low  and  flat,  following  more  closely  the 
model  of  the  Massachusetts  Hospital. 

Bulfinch  died  in  Boston  in  1844.  His  funeral 
was  held  in  King's  Chapel,  and  his  remains  were  at 
first  interred  there  in  the  ancestral  tomb,  but  after- 
wards removed  to  Mount  Auburn.  His  monument 
in  that  cemetery  is  the  historic  stone  urn  which  he 
himself  gave  to  Franklin  Place  in  1795,  a  treasure 
that  he  had  collected  abroad.  When  the  enclosure 
of  shrubbery  in  which  it  had  stood  for  years  was 
removed  the  urn  was  returned  to  the  architect's 
sons. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  KERNEL  OF  THE  NUT 

THE  Bulfinch  trail  is  all  but  obliterated  in  Bos- 
ton. The  State  House  squeezed  to  its  minimum 
of  effect  between  dishonouring  wings,  backed  by 
garish  yellow  brick  additions;  the  charming  old 
hospital  dwarfed  and  hedged  about  by  its  up-to- 
date  appendages ;  Franklin  Crescent  destroyed,  the 
Boston  Theatre,  the  churches,  the  Boylston  Mar- 
ket, the  McLean  Asylum,  at  Somerville,  and  a 
score  of  other  buildings  gone  in  the  path  of  modern 
development,  —  there  is  literally  nothing  of  Bui- 
finch's  Boston,  as  it  came  from  his  hand,  except  a 
very  few  old  houses,  to  substantiate  the  claim  made 
for  him  as  the  most  distinguished  American  archi- 
tect of  his  day,  the  earliest  native  architect  to  leave 
his  impress  upon  the  little  town. 

The  Boston  town  into  which  Charles  Bulfinch 
was  born,  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  was  a  primitive  little  settlement,  whose 
architecture  was  limited  to  a  few  modest  "  meeting- 
houses "  and  a  handful  of  colonial  dwellings,  of 
which  the  Hancock  house,  on  Beacon  Hill,  was  a 

380 


THE    KERXEL   OF   THE    NUT     381 

noted  example.  Some  of  the  finer  buildings  were 
the  work  of  English  architects  —  Peter  Harrison 
had  built  King's  Chapel  —  but,  for  the  most  part, 
men  designed  their  own  homes  in  these  days,  em- 
ploying intelligent  carpenters  or  housewrights  for 
the  building,  frankly  done  with  the  materials  at 
hand.  When  something  beyond  the  ordinary  was 
required,  an  ornate  doorway,  with  fan  and  side 
lights  and  columns  perhaps,  was  applied,  with  oc- 
casionally handsome  entablatures  over  the  windows 
of  one  story  to  break  up  a  bit  the  severity  of  the 
plain  surface. 

The  brick  meeting-houses  were  exceedingly  plain, 
though  in  excellent  taste,  all  ornamentation  having 
been  lavished  upon  the  steeples,  often  copied  from 
the  English  models  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and 
added  with  considerable  taste  and  skill.  No  par- 
ticular record  of  such  things  was  kept  beyond  the 
local  tradition,  and  no  particular  credit  was  given 
to  the  builder,  or  housewright,  who  put  them  up 
with  all  simplicity. 

There  is,  for  instance,  a  deeply  rooted  tradition 
in  Provincetown,  that  the  truly  handsome  spire, 
with  its  exquisite  pineapple,  of  the  old  white  frame 
church  opposite  the  post  office  in  that  village,  was 
designed  by  Sir  Christopher  (who  died  some  years 
before  its  erection),  which  is  merely  another  way 


382     A  LOITERER  IN  XEW  ENGLAND 

of  saying  that  it  may  have  been  made  after  his 
designs. 

Many  of  the  early  comers  to  Massachusetts 
brought  the  plans  of  their  English  homes  with  them, 
or  at  least,  in  building,  reproduced  their  general 
style,  altering  only  the  pitch  of  the  roof  to  shed 
the  snow.  Sometimes  the  interiors  were  brought 
over  intact.  In  Plymouth  the  story  goes  that  the 
old  Winslow  house,  which  stands  at  a  shaded  corner 
overlooking  the  harbour,  was  brought  over  bodily 
from  England,  and  that,  in  setting  it  up,  the 
builders  misunderstood  the  plan  and  reversed  the 
first  and  second  stories,  which  accounts  for  the 
large,  high  ceiled  rooms  being  on  the  second  floor 
and  the  small  chambers  underneath. 

Paul  Revere's  house,  in  North  Square,  Boston, 
elaborately  cared  for  in  the  picturesque  squalor  of 
its  environment,  was  probably  a  typical  dwelling 
of  its  class  at  the  time  that  it  was  built,  and  it  fol- 
lows distinctly  the  English  cottage  style  of  its 
period.  Even  the  Old  State  House,  except  for  its 
ornate  ends  and  delightful  cupola,  is  a  very  plain, 
primitive  structure  whose  architectural  "  features," 
in  so  far  as  the  ends  and  cupola  may  be  regarded 
as  such,  have  the  effect  of  applied  decoration  rather 
than  integral  parts  of  the  design. 

Not  far  from  Paul  Revere's  house,  in   Salem 


THE   KERNEL   OF   THE   NUT     383 

Street,  one  of  the  oldest  ways,  near  Copp's  Hill, 
is  the  most  ancient  house  of  worship  in  Boston,  de- 
signed, as  the  records  say,  "after  the  manner  of 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,"  and  opened  for  service  on 
December  29,  1723.  This  is  Christ  Church,  com- 
monly known  as  the  North  Church,  though  with- 
out exactitude,  as  there  were  other  meeting-houses 
bearing  this  designation. 

From  the  summit  of  Beacon  Hill,  over  the  mild 
elevation  of  Pemberton  Square,  or  Cotton  Hill, 
the  way  ducks  down  abruptly  behind  the  Court 
House,  or  often  through  it,  to  Scollay  Square,  re- 
vealing through  Court  Street  an  ingratiating  vista 
of  the  Old  State  House,  its  white,  storied  cupola 
rising  above  the  blackened  bricks,  against  the  soft 
gray  of  the  new  office  buildings.  With  a  choice  of 
branching  streets  at  the  hubbub  of  Scollay  Square, 
one  selects  Cornhill  as  the  most  rewarding  in  the 
matter  of  vistas,  diving  down  again  between  the 
narrowing  houses,  pausing  for  amusement  at 
"  Franklin  Avenue,"  an  alley  to  the  right,  a  pas- 
sageway to  the  right,  leading  by  a  flight  of  stone 
steps  to  the  lower  level  of  Brattle  Street,  famous 
for  its  granite  block  forming  the  old  Quincy  House 
and  adjacent  restaurants. 

From  the  corner  of  Cornhill  and  Dock  Square 
is  revealed  the  old  contorted  kernel  of  the  nut  in 


384     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

its  most  fascinating  aspect ;  streets  run  riot  here  in 
wildest  confusion,  and  immediately  Faneuil  Hall, 
overhung  by  the  immense  height  of  the  Custom 
House  Tower,  begins  to  dominate  the  prospect.  It 
blocks  the  way  in  all  directions,  and  from  every 
crooked  by-way  poses  graciously,  turning  its  gold 
grasshopper  vane  in  complaisance  with  every  shift 
of  a  fickle  wind,  laying  its  copper  green  cupola  now 
against  the  sky,  again  upon  the  smoke  gray  of  the 
federal  tower  in  enchanting  variety  —  its  very  dor- 
mers, round  cylinders  of  verdigris,  adding  to  its 
picturesqueness  a  character  which  is  all  of  another 
time.  The  Bulfinch  mark  is  upon  it  strongly, 
though  we  know  that  an  earlier  artist,  Smibert,  the 
English  portrait  painter,  who  came  to  this  country 
with  Peter  Harrison  and  Dean  Berkley,  was  its 
first  architect,  and  that  Bulfinch  in  his  reconstruc- 
tion treated  the  painter's  model  with  reverence. 

From  the  point  where  Dock  Square  winds  into 
Union  Street  the  old  Quincy  Market,  that  extraor- 
dinary Greek  temple  dedicated  to  the  traffic  of 
produce  vendors,  comes  amazingly  into  the  picture, 
just  for  a  moment  adding  its  compact  bulk,  its 
round  flat  dome,  as  weight  and  substance  to  the 
composition.  The  massive  columns  were  brought 
from  Chelmsford,  through  the  Middlesex  Canal,  to 
the  Boston  Mill  Pond,  and  through  Mill  Creek, 


PORTRAIT  OF  JOSIAH   QUINCY,  BY  GILBERT  STUART. 
MUSEUM   OF   FINE   ARTS. 


THE    KERNEL   OF   THE    NUT     ;38.5 

now  covered  by  Blackstone  Street,  to  the  town 
dock,  near  Faneuil  Hall.  The  market  stands  as 
a  monument  to  the  first  Josiah  Quincy,  in  whose 
administration  as  mayor  of  Boston  extensive  im- 
provements were  made  about  Dock  Square.  Upon 
the  new-made  land  the  Quincy  Market  was  built  in 
1825-1826,  at  the  head  of  Long  Wharf,  while  to 
its  back  door  came  the  waters  of  the  sea  and  the 
Hingham  sailing  packet. 

The  streets  round  about  are  fragrant  with  de- 
licious odours  of  wholesale  fruits,  vegetables,  and 
flowers;  every  corner  displays  a  fish  or  market 
house,  a  fruit  or  vegetable  stall;  lettuces,  Boston 
market  celery,  radishes,  bulge  from  stuffed  barrels 
and  crates  piled  upon  the  sidewalks,  and  the  hoarse 
cries  of  the  Italian  and  Jewish  peddlers  fill  the 
air. 

Our  route  lies  to  the  left,  by  Union  Street,  past 
the  old  Union  Oyster  House,  well  situated  for 
prominence  at  the  most  salient  part  of  the  hand- 
some curve,  broken  by  the  departure  of  Marshall 
Lane,  allowing  a  last  short  cut  in  the  course  to 
Hanover  Street,  the  great  artery  of  the  North  End. 
Old  London  seems  always  close  at  hand  in  Old 
Boston,  but  nowhere,  perhaps,  so  much  to  the  fore 
as  in  this  Oyster  House,  which  has  its  history  and 
looks  it,  for  the  bricks  are  of  an  ancient  pattern, 


386     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  shingled  roof  is  gambrel,  and  the  shop  windows, 
low  and  flat  upon  the  street,  look  in  upon  white 
stalls  of  a  century  or  more  ago.  One  might  fancy 
one's  self  in  Soho. 

A  last  detail,  Creek  Square,  an  inlet  to  a  tangle 
of  alleys  behind  a  quaint  grog  shop,  one  of  the 
strangest  bits  of  antiquated  city,  and  then,  just 
across  Marshall  Lane,  from  the  corner  of  a  dingy 
building,  sticks  half-way  out  upon  the  sidewalk  the 
partially  imbedded  "Boston  Stone."  The  stone, 
so  goes  the  legend,  was  originally  a  paint  mill,  and 
was  imported  from  England  about  1700.  It  is 
hollow  and  within  it  rests  the  grinder.  A  well- 
known  point  in  Marshall  Lane,  since  1737,  the  date 
inscribed  on  its  face,  it  was  sometimes  used  as  a 
starting  point  for  surveyors,  and  figures  in  old 
deeds. 

Salem  Street  lies  diagonally  across  from  the 
point  where  Marshall  Lane  emerges  upon  Hanover 
Street  after  passing  the  Boston  Stone.  It  leads 
off  at  a  delightful  tangent  towards  Copp's  Hill, 
making  several  mild  angles  in  its  course,  and  figures 
as  the  characteristic  pathway  of  the  old  quarter  for 
many  generations  given  over  to  the  foreign  immi- 
grants in  the  first  stage  of  their  assimilation.  The 
narrow  sidewalk  drives  the  pedestrian,  perforce, 
into  the  street,  itself  distinctively  European  in 


THE    KERNEL   OF   THE    NUT     387 

character,  a  street  through  which  vehicles  pass 
rarely. 

The  North  End  has  been  called  the  crucible  of 
the  new  citizen.  The  metal  of  one  nation,  the  Irish, 
has  passed  through  its  fire ;  the  Italian  is  now  going 
through  the  test ;  while  before  the  region  is  claimed 
for  business,  a  third  race  seems  likely  to  pass  into 
the  melting  pot. 

Yankee  families  were  the  first  occupants  of  these 
old  clapboarded  houses,  many  of  them  clearly  of 
two  centuries  ago,  where  now  swarms  the  Italian 
colony,  in  supreme  possession.  Half-way  down, 
where  Prince  Street,  anciently  the  Black  Horse 
Lane,  crosses  Salem  Street,  at  a  point  where  the 
way  turns  and  narrows,  a  typical  old  house  is 
thrown  into  prominence.  A  bust  of  a  famous 
Greek  chemist  stands  over  the  entrance  to  the 
"  Farmacia  Roma,"  giving  local  colour  to  the  street 
and  establishing  its  Neapolitan  flavour. 

Scarce  has  one  begun  to  sense  the  proximity  of 
historic  things  than  a  multitude  of  guides  spring 
up  from  amongst  the  idle  street  urchins.  Abandon- 
ing their  games  or  whatever,  they  attack  the  "  fo- 
restieri "  with  all  the  manner  of  natives  and  abori- 
gines, proceed  uninvited,  nay  discouraged,  upon  a 
recital  of  all  the  doings  of  Paul  Revere,  his  lanterns 
and  his  ride,  relate  the  history  of  Copp's  Hill,  and 


388     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

reel  off  at  high  speed  the  epitaphs  in  the  old  ceme- 
tery in  one  long,  monotonous  tirade,  almost  wholly 
incomprehensible.  One  and  all  these  children  seem 
to  have  mastered  the  history  of  their  locality  and  in 
a  way  appreciate  and  understand  it. 

From  the  point  where  Salem  Street  narrows  and 
bends  to  the  right,  the  spire  of  Christ  Church  begins 
to  dominate  the  view  to  the  north.  "Due  to  the 
bounty  of  Honduras  Merchants  "  the  steeple  was 
added  to  the  completed  church  in  1740,  and  long 
served  as  a  guide  to  mariners,  standing  as  it  did 
upon  a  considerable  elevation.  From  the  original 
spire,  on  the  18th  of  April,  1775,  Robert  Newman, 
the  sexton  of  the  church  and  Paul  Revere's  friend, 
displayed  the  signal  lanterns  which  warned  the 
country  of  the  march  of  the  British  troops  to  Lex- 
ington and  Concord,  while  Revere  himself,  in  a 
boat  manned  by  friends,  made  his  way  silently 
past  the  Somerset  towards  the  Charlestown  shore, 
whence  he  was  to  start  upon  his  famous  ride. 

The  North  End  in  the  days  of  the  building  of 
the  church,  1723,  was  an  island,  so  made  by  a  canal 
connecting  the  Mill  Pond  with  the  harbour.  The 
Mill  Pond  in  those  days  came  close  to  the  south 
extremity  of  Salem  Street,  and  was  reached  by  a 
bridge  across  the  intersection  of  the  present  Han- 
over and  Blackstone  streets.  The  cornerstone  of 


THE    KERNEL   OF   THE    NUT     389 

the  little  church  near  the  summit  of  Copp's  Hill 
was  laid  by  the  Reverend  Samuel  Myles,  rector  of 
King's  Chapel,  the  original  Episcopal  Church  in 
Boston  and  of  which  Christ  Church  was  the  first 
shoot. 

Episcopacy,  as  we  know,  was  not  tolerated  by 
the  first  comers  to  New  England,  and  two  genera- 
tions had  passed  before  the  Church  of  England 
gained  any  foothold  here.  In  1686  the  Reverend 
Robert  Ratcliffe,  sent  out  by  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, instituted  services  at  the  Town  House,  and 
the  people,  it  is  said  partly  from  curiosity,  flocked 
to  hear  him.  A  church  was  organized  at  once,  and 
two  years  later  King's  Chapel  was  built,  nearly 
sixty  years  after  the  settlement  of  Boston. 

Still  the  feeling  against  anything  verging  towards 
papistry  was  too  strong  to  allow  a  departure  in  the 
naming  of  churches  such  as  the  adoption  of  saints' 
names.  The  Puritans  could  think  of  nothing  more 
original  or  more  neutral,  it  would  seem,  than  the 
points  of  the  compass,  the  numerals,  or  the  names 
of  the  streets  upon  which  their  meeting-houses 
stood,  to  distinguish  them  one  from  another,  a 
stupid,  characterless  method,  but  one  which  suited 
their  idea  of  plainness  and  simplicity.  So  set  were 
they  against  any  papistic  tendency,  that  at  one  time 
a  fine  of  five  shillings  was  imposed  upon  any  one 


390    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

observing  Christmas  Day,  and  no  days  observed 
by  the  Church  of  England  were  recognized  in  the 
revised  religion.  In  this  manner  the  people,  who 
had  to  have  some  religious  fetes,  came  to  exalt 
throughout  New  England  Thanksgiving  Day,  a 
day  of  their  own  invention,  and  therefore  perfectly 
innocuous. 

The  first  follower  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
Boston  scarcely  dared  more  in  those  early  times, 
and  so  the  name  King's  Chapel  was  selected  for 
the  little  wooden  edifice  on  the  border  of  the  Com- 
mon. Erected  in  1688  and  enlarged  in  1710,  it 
soon  proved  inadequate  to  house  the  growing  con- 
gregation, and  it  was  to  relieve  the  situation  that, 
in  1722,  subscriptions  were  invited  for  the  building 
of  a  new  church  in  the  North  End.  Amongst  the 
contributors  we  find  the  name  Peter  Faneuil,  the 
builder  of  Faneuil  Hall. 

Meanwhile  Timothy  Cutler,  the  president  of 
Yale  College,  was  being  converted  to  Episcopacy, 
which  made  him  unpopular  at  New  Haven  so  that 
he  resigned  his  position,  and  sailing  for  England 
with  several  of  his  tutors,  who  were  also  converts, 
was  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich.  He  re- 
turned in  time  to  accept  the  charge  as  the  first 
rector  of  Christ  Church,  which  had  been  completed 
within  the  year  1723,  following  Wren's  plan  for 


BOSTON,  OLH  AND  NEW. 

FROM   AN    ETCHING   BY   SEARS   GALLAGHER. 

QUINCY    MARKET  AND  THE   FEDERAL  BUILDING. 


THE    KERNEL   OF    THE    NUT     391 

St.  Anne's,  Blackfriars.  Above  the  brickwork  was 
the  tower  of  wood,  built  in  sections  and  surmounted 
by  a  spire,  this  design  attributed  to  William  Price. 

The  first  spire  was  blown  over  in  a  gale  in  1804, 
and  the  present  reproduction  was  built  in  1807, 
from  drawings  by  Charles  Bulfinch.  While  he 
made  the  spire  somewhat  shorter  than  the  first,  he 
is  said  to  have  treated  the  model  with  reverence, 
and  to  have  preserved  the  same  general  character. 

The  chief  treasure  of  this  delightful  church  is 
its  famous  peal  of  eight  bells,  the  "  first  cast  for  the 
British  Empire  in  North  America,"  proposed  by 
Gedney  Clark,  of  Barbadoes,  and  from  the  foundry 
of  Abel  Rudhall,  of  Gloucester.  An  illuminating 
tablet  within  the  church  —  the  tablets  throughout 
tell  most  admirably  its  history  —  relates  that  these 
bells  were  transported  free  by  John  Rowe  the 
diarist,  and  that  they  proclaimed  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  on  the  morning  of  May  19,  1766,  and 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  in  1781.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  they  were  rung  until  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  by  a  band  of  change  ringers,  of  which 
Paul  Revere  was  a  member,  and  in  later  years 
they  played  their  part  in  the  reception  given  to 
Lafayette. 

When  the  steeple  was  restored  the  famous  bells 
were,  of  course,  rehung,  and  when  lately  the  church 


392     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

was  renovated  (1912)  a  representative  from  the 
firm  of  Abel  Rudhall,  of  Gloucester,  came  over  to 
repair  and  rehang  the  bells  so  that  they  should  not 
be  treated  by  alien  hands.  On  Christmas  and  other 
festal  occasions  they  are  rung  according  to  the 
impressive  English  manner  by  the  Boston  Guild 
of  Change  Ringers,  a  proficient  association,  quali- 
fied by  years  of  constant  practice  in  England.  This 
most  interesting  exhibition  of  skill  is  but  little 
heralded  and  not  too  well  known  in  Boston. 

The  history  of  the  peal  is  told  by  the  bells  them- 
selves, each  having  an  inscription  around  its  crown, 
which  makes  a  narrative. 

At  the  left  of  the  chancel  in  a  niche,  made  by 
covering  the  window  through  which  Newman  crept 
after  hanging  the  lanterns,  stands  an  interesting 
old  marble  bust  of  Washington,  presented  to  the 
church  in  1815  by  Shubael  Bell,  senior  warden, 
and  reputed  to  have  been  carved  from  a  plaster 
bust,  mentioned  in  the  diary  of  William  Bentley 
as  having  been  made  by  Christian  Giillagher,  of 
Boston,  in  1790.  The  monument  is  called  the  first 
memorial  to  Washington  erected  in  a  public  place; 
Lafayette  is  said  to  have  seen  it  upon  his  visit 
to  the  church  in  1824,  and  to  have  praised  it  as 
more  like  the  original  than  any  portrait  he  had 
seen. 


THE    KERNEL   OF   THE    NUT     393 

The  four  statuettes  of  cherubim,  carved  in  wood, 
in  front  of  the  organ  were  presented  to  the  church 
by  Captain  Gruchy,  commander  of  the  privateer 
Queen  of  Hungary,  in  the  French  and  Indian  war 
of  1746,  who,  as  the  tablet  to  his  memory  says,  "  in 
parlous  times "  took  them  from  a  French  ship 
which  was  conveying  them  to  a  church  at  Montreal. 
These,  together  with  two  excellent  oil  portraits  by 
unidentified  painters  which  hang  in  the  library  of 
the  church,  are  its  art  treasures.  The  unique  feature 
of  the  library  itself  is  that  it  remains  to-day  within 
the  original  building,  while  similar  church  libraries, 
such  as  that  belonging  to  King's  Chapel  and  the 
Old  South,  have  been  passed  on  to  the  Athenaeum 
and  the  Public  Library.  Amongst  its  chief  treas- 
ures is  a  Vinegar  Bible  presented  to  the  church  by 
King  George  II.  This  monarch  gave  also  part  of 
the  beautiful  communion  service  belonging  to  the 
church,  but  deposited  with  the  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts. 

In  1912,  under  the  rectorship  of  Bishop  Law- 
rence, the  reconstruction  of  Christ  Church  was 
undertaken  at  a  time  when  it  was  proposed  to  turn 
it  into  a  museum.  The  bishop  turned  all  his  influ- 
ence against  giving  up  the  church,  and  Mr.  Charles 
K.  Bolton,  senior  warden,  representing  the  rector, 
undertook  the  complete  restoration  of  the  church, 


394     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  alterations  being  carried  out  by  R.  Clipston 
Sturgis  and  Henry  C.  Ross. 

The  exterior  was  restored  to  its  original  colour, 
for  the  church,  following  the  fashion  of  remoter 
times,  had  been  painted  gray,  and  the  north  wall 
covered  at  an  early  date  with  clapboards  to  keep 
out  the  winter  storms.  Inside  square  pews  had 
been  made  into  long  pews,  and  these  were  put  back 
to  the  original  shape  and  the  central  aisle  restored, 
following  the  plan  of  the  pews  and  the  nail  marks 
in  the  floor.  The  pews  have  all  been  marked 
with  the  names  of  the  original  owners,  many  of 
whom  were  sea-captains.  A  large  window,  known 
through  Burgis'  drawing  of  1723,  was  restored  to 
the  apse. 

The  records  show  such  pleasing  and  intimate 
details  as  this,  that  the  clock  in  front  of  the  gallery 
was  made  by  Richard  Avery  in  1726,  and  the  case 
was  made  by  Thomas  Bennett,  proprietor  of  pew 
No.  56;  and  that  Captain  Cyprian  Southack,  the 
commander  of  the  Province  Galley,  gave  a  belfry 
clock  before  the  year  1735,  not  used  until  1749, 
when  it  was  repaired  and  put  in  place;  and  there  is 
a  very  current  scandal  to  account  for  the  many  dim 
or  foggy  lights  in  the  windows.  It  is  said  that  once 
when  a  glazier  was  employed  to  replace  the  glass 
he  helped  himself  from  the  coffins  in  the  crypt 


THE    KERNEL   OF   THE    NUT     395 

under  the  church,  and  this  glass  long  huried  had 
became  discoloured,  as  it  now  appears. 

The  crypt  itself  is  an  interesting  feature  of  the 
church;  it  is  reported  that  about  twelve  hundred 
persons  are  buried  in  the  tombs  which  line  its  walls. 
A  passage  runs  around  the  crypt,  and  on  both  sides 
are  numbered  vaults,  sometimes  carved  and  in- 
scribed stones  set  in  the  doors,  which  are  now  being 
sealed  up.  The  first  rector,  Timothy  Cutler,  is 
buried  under  the  chancel. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
OLD   LANDMARKS 

THE  Old  South  Church,  stripped  of  its  century's 
growth  of  English  ivy,  its  whitened  face  chemically 
put  back,  in  the  recent  rage  for  restoration,  to  the 
original  red  brick,  stands  in  the  heart  of  traffic  on 
Washington  Street,  on  sufferance,  as  it  were,  and 
conditionally,  one  might  judge,  upon  its  acceptance 
of  an  ignoble  role  —  for  its  chief  practical  function 
is  to  mark  an  entrance  to  the  subway  which  runs 
under  its  foundations. 

'To  what  base  use  may  we  return  at  last?"  it 
seems  to  ask  of  its  neighbour,  the  Old  State  House, 
which,  very  much  restored,  is  made  to  do  picket  duty 
for  another  subterranean  offence.  Basely  worked 
for  its  full  commercial  value,  its  fine  lines  obscured 
by  additions,  its  facades  covered  by  ignoble  signs, 
made  to  yield  every  dollar  of  its  potential  earning 
capacity,  it  was  only  the  final  revolt  of  citizens  that 
saved  the  Old  State  House  when  its  very  foothold 
became  more  valuable  to  the  authorities  than  the 
traditions  for  which  it  stood. 

This  revolt  of  citizens,  it  must  be  admitted,  was 


OLD   LANDMARKS  397 

precipitated  by  a  threatened  interference  from  the 
Middle  West.  Things  had  gone  so  far  that  the 
building  was  about  to  be  demolished  when  Chicago 
came  forward  with  a  handsome  offer  to  buy  the 
historic  relic,  and  reset  it  brick  by  brick  out  there 
along  the  lake  front,  where  it  could  be  worshipped 
and  revered  by  the  descendants  of  the  Forefathers 
in  a  place  where  colonial  treasures  were  at  a 
premium.  Then  was  Boston's  patriotic  pride  in- 
deed roused.  The  proposition  was  refused  with 
spirit,  and  under  the  stress  of  the  saved  situation 
tenants  were  cleared  out,  signs  torn  off,  and  masons 
set  to  work  to  restore  the  lines,  while  the  Bostonian 
Society  was  installed  within  as  custodian  of  the 
museum  of  colonial  relics. 

Down  there  in  the  heart  of  the  business  district 
these  two  old  buildings  stand  as  best  they  may 
against  the  tide  that  is  all  against  the  ideals  of  their 
day.  While  sentiment  protects  them  and  has  res- 
cued them  from  total  destruction,  progress  finds 
them  sadly  in  the  way,  so,  like  honourable  veterans 
who  have  outstayed  their  time,  they  have  been 
suddenly  seized  upon  by  a  thrifty  system,  which 
cannot  tolerate  idlers  of  whatever  age  or  dignity, 
and  made  to  serve  the  ends  of  the  rapid  transit 
which  rattles  under  their  bones.  Park  Street 
Church  has  perhaps  fared  better  —  a  tea  shop  and 


398     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

a  florist  occupy  its  foundation,  singular  desecration, 
however,  possible  only  in  this  paradoxical  New 
England. 

The  great  lire  of  1872,  coming  as  it  did  within 
two  blocks  of  the  Old  South  Church  and  destroying 
the  adjacent  residential  section,  unsettled  the  con- 
gregation, and  two  years  later  we  find  it  richly 
occupying  the  elaborate  "  New  Old  South,"  built 
upon  Copley  Square,  to  keep  up  with  the  rising 
fashionableness  of  the  Back  Bay.  The  congrega- 
tion, though  a  wealthy  one,  as  may  be  judged 
by  the  style  of  the  new  church,  allowed  itself  no 
sentiment  for  the  historic  meeting-house  of  humbler 
days.  It  was  kicked  off  like  an  old  shoe. 

For  two  years  the  building  was  leased  to  the 
United  States  for  a  post  office.  In  the  spring  of 
1876  the  historic  landmark  was  advertised  for  sale, 
with  the  proviso  that  it  should  be  torn  down  and 
removed  within  sixty  days.  The  plan  was  to  sell 
the  land  separately  for  $400,000.  For  the  New 
Old  South  this  was  a  cold  business  proposition,  it 
wanted  money  merely,  wanted  it  in  the  hardest 
sense  of  the  words,  at  the  expense  of  all  ideals. 

A  newspaper  advertisement  of  the  auction  enu- 
merates the  extrinsic  valuables  —  "All  the  ma- 
terials above  the  level  of  the  sidewalks,  except  the 
corner-stone  and  the  clock  in  the  tower,"  and  adds 


THE  OLD   STATE   HOUSE. 

FROM    AN    ETCHING   BY    SEARS   GALLAGHER. 


OLD    LANDMARKS  399 

the  information  that  "the  spire  is  covered  with 
copper,  and  there  is  a  lot  of  lead  on  the  roof  and 
belfry,  and  the  roof  is  covered  with  imported  old 
Welsh  slate." 

Protests  came  from  all  over  the  country,  but  they 
were  unorganized  and  on  June  8  the  building  was 
sold  at  auction  for  $1,350.  The  work  of  destruction 
was  not  delayed,  and  the  clock  in  the  tower  had  al- 
ready been  taken  down  and  the  solid  masonry  at- 
tacked when  George  W.  Simmons  and  Son,  a 
prominent  business  firm,  stepped  in  and  purchased 
the  right  to  hold  the  building  uninjured  for  seven 
days.  With  this  reprieve  the  friends  of  the  Old 
South  had  time  to  handle  their  resources.  There 
was  a  glorious  reaction.  William  Everett  wrote  a 
short,  stirring  history  of  the  meeting-house,  setting 
forth  the  cumulative  facts  in  eighteen  pithy  para- 
graphs, each  one  more  convincing  than  the  last. 
This  was  distributed,  and  on  June  14  a  town  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  church  to  protest  against 
its  demolition;  speeches  were  made  by  Wendell 
Phillips  and  others,  and  a  preservation  committee 
was  formed  headed  by  the  governor. 

The  sum  of  money  immediately  necessary  was 
raised  by  subscriptions  and  loans  assumed  by  the 
Old  South  Association,  a  corporation  specially 
chartered  to  preserve  the  edifice.  This  was  fol- 


400     A  LOITERER  IN  XEW  ENGLAND 

lowed  by  rousing  demonstrations  of  public  feeling 
in  which  literary  Boston  shone  in  its  efforts  to  re- 
deem the  pledges  made.  There  was  one  symposium 
for  the  benefit  of  the  fund,  held  in  the  meeting- 
house itself  in  1877,  which  must  have  rejoiced  the 
heart  of  the  assembled  Bostonians.  All  the  celeb- 
rities except  Whittier  were  there,  and  most  of 
them  read  poems  composed  for  the  occasion.  Em- 
erson, Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
and  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clark  contributed,  and 
Dr.  Samuel  F.  Smith  read  his  famous  "  America." 
Upon  other  occasions  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  Colonel  Henry  Lee,  William  Everett, 
Dr.  Edward  G.  Porter,  Dr.  George  Ellis,  Henry 
W.  Foote,  and  others  lectured  for  the  benefit  of  the 
fund,  and  here  also,  in  1879,  John  Fiske  gave  one 
of  his  first  courses  in  American  History. 

The  Old  South  Church  is  not  only  an  historic 
landmark  in  the  richest  sense  of  the  term :  it  marks 
historic  ground  of  great  importance  in  Boston.  It 
stands  in  Governor  Winthrop's  lot,  which  was  part 
of  the  "  green  "  originally  granted  by  "  The  Colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England "  to  the 
founder  of  Boston  and  described  by  him  as  "the 
governour's  first  lot."  Until  its  destruction  by 
the  British  during  the  siege,  the  old  homestead  of 
the  first  governor  stood,  facing  the  south,  with  the 


OLD   LANDMARKS  401 

end  towards  School  Street.  "  It  was  of  wood,  two 
stories  high,  .  .  .  and  till  the  meeting-house  was 
erected  [it  was  the  only]  building  on  the  lot;  .  .  . 
the  premises  gave  the  appearance  indicated  by  the 
name,  '  The  Green,'  being  skirted  along  the  main 
street  by  a  row  of  beautiful  buttonwood  trees." 
These  trees,  with  the  house,  furnished  fuel  for  the 
British  troops  in  the  winter  of  1775-1776. 

Standing  at  the  corner  of  the  "great  waye  to 
Roxbury"  this  estate,  after  it  had  passed  to  the 
Rev.  John  Norton,  John  Cotton's  successor,  was 
described  as  one  of  the  sightliest  in  Boston.  It  was 
his  wife,  Mary  Xorton,  who  gave  the  ground  for 
the  old  cedar  meeting-house,  erected  in  1669  by 
Robert  Tweld,  on  the  site  of  the  present  building, 
and  it  was  in  this  little  house  of  worship  that  Sir 
Edmund  Andros  enforced  upon  the  colonists  the 
Episcopal  form  of  worship;  it  was  here  that  Judge 
Sewall  stood  up  in  his  pew  while  his  confession  of 
contrition  for  his  share  in  the  witchcraft  delusion 
of  1692  was  read  to  the  congregation,  and  here, 
on  January  17,  1706,  was  baptized  Benjamin 
Franklin,  born  across  the  way,  in  his  father's  house 
on  Milk  Street. 

In  1729  the  old  cedar  meeting-house,  which  had 
served  two  generations,  was  pulled  down  and  the 
foundation  of  the  present  structure  laid.  The 


402     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

building  followed  the  best  taste  of  the  time,  a  style 
so  good  that  when  Park  Street  Church  was  de- 
signed the  best  part  of  a  century  later  by  Peter 
Banner,  an  English  architect,  he  did  not  depart  so 
vastly  from  the  earlier  model.  Such  repairs  as  it 
lias  suffered  have  always  strictly  preserved  its 
character. 

When  Smibert's  Faneuil  Hall  became  too  small 
for  the  great  town  meetings  which  preceded  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  adjourned 
meetings  were  held  here,  and  an  "  Old  South  Meet- 
ing "  became  famous  to  Chatham  and  Burke.  The 
old  church  served  its  purpose  nobly  during  these 
stressful  times.  It  was  here  that  the  great  con- 
course of  people  waited  after  the  Boston  Massacre 
while  Samuel  Adams  went  back  and  forth  to  the 
State  House  till  Hutchinson  yielded  and  withdrew 
his  regiments.  A  meeting  of  five  thousand  citizens 
here,  on  November  29,  1773,  resolved  that  the  tea 
should  not  be  landed,  and  it  was  from  the  doors  of 
this  house  that  the  war-whoop  was  raised  as  the 
citizens  disguised  as  savages  led  the  way  to  the 
harbour  where  the  tea  was  destroyed. 

For  five  years  after  the  massacre  orations  were 
delivered  in  the  Old  South  Meeting-house  on  anni- 
versaries of  the  occasion.  Three  months  before  he 
was  killed  at  Bunker  Hill,  Joseph  Warren  made 


SKETCH   FOR   STATUE   OF   WARREN,  BY   PAUL    WAYLAND   BARTLETT. 
WARREN    SQUARE,   ROXBURY. 


OLD   LANDMARKS  403 

his  famous  appearance  through  the  window  back  of 
the  pulpit,  while  the  aisles  and  steps  were  filled 
with  British  soldiers  and  officers,  to  deliver,  in  de- 
fiance of  their  threats,  his  commemorative  speech. 
The  account  of  the  affair  is  a  mixture  of  boyish 
bravado  and  glorious  courage,  it  shows  the  splendid 
vitality  of  the  nation  at  this  critical  time. 

This  was  in  the  year  1775,  when  the  town  was 
in  British  occupation,  and  it  had  been  given  out  that 
no  allusion  to  the  massacre  would  be  tolerated  and 
Warren  offered  himself  as  orator  at  the  risk  of  his 
life.  The  anniversary  fell  on  Sunday  and  was  cele- 
brated on  Monday,  the  house  being  thronged  early 
in  the  day  in  anticipation  of  a  sensation.  The 
pulpit  was  draped  in  black,  and  on  the  platform  sat 
the  leaders  of  the  colonists  —  Samuel  Adams,  John 
Hancock,  and  others,  while  the  aisles  were  crowded 
with  British  officers.  At  the  opening  of  the  meet- 
ing it  is  said  that  Adams  in  his  most  civil  manner 
asked  the  occupants  of  the  front  pews  to  make  room 
for  the  guests  to  be  seated,  and  that  forty  uniformed 
British  officers  thereupon  filed  into  the  pews  and 
others  filled  the  pulpit  stairs. 

Meanwhile  Warren  drove  up  in  a  chaise  to  a 
house  opposite  the  church  where  he  put  on  his  black 
gown,  and  to  avoid  the  crowd  which  blocked  the 
passage  through  the  church  he  went  around  to  the 


401     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

rear,  where  a  ladder  had  been  prepared  for  him, 
and,  gathering  his  robe  about  him,  climbed  to  the 
window  in  the  rear  of  the  pulpit,  arid  in  this  spec- 
tacular manner  entered  the  church  amidst  an  op- 
pressive silence. 

"  His  speech,"  said  Frothingham,  "  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  a  high  chivalry  and  faith,  resounds 
with  the  clash  of  arms."  "  The  scene  was  sublime," 
wrote  Knapp.  "  There  was  in  this  appeal  to 
Britain  —  in  this  description  of  suffering,  dying, 
horrors  —  a  calm  and  high-souled  defiance  which 
must  have  chilled  the  blood  of  every  sensible  foe. 
Such  another  hour  has  seldom  happened  in  the 
history  of  man,  and  is  not  to  be  surpassed  in 
the  records  of  nations." 

The  building  as  it  stands  is  of  course  almost 
entirely  reconstructed  within,  as  during  the  siege 
of  Boston  it  was  bared  of  everything  except  the 
sounding  board  and  the  east  galleries,  hundreds  of 
loads  of  dirt  and  gravel  were  carted  in  and  the 
place  used  as  a  riding  school  for  Burgoyne's  cavalry. 
The  pulpit  and  pews,  it  is  said,  were  burned  for 
fuel,  and  the  east  galleries  were  left  for  the  accom- 
modation of  spectators,  while  in  the  first  gallery  a 
buffet  was  installed  to  furnish  refreshments  to  those 
who  came  to  see  the  feats  of  horsemanship. 

Originally  there  were  two  galleries,  as  at  present, 


OLD   LANDMARKS  405 

and  the  pulpit  was  on  the  side,  as  now,  opposite 
the  Milk  Street  door,  which  was  the  usual  entrance. 
The  pulpit  was  larger  and  higher  than  the  one 
replaced  after  the  Revolution,  and  directly  in  front 
of  it  were  the  elevated  seats  for  the  deacons  and 
elders.  On  each  side  of  the  middle  aisle  under  the 
pulpit  were  a  number  of  long  seats  for  aged  people, 
while  for  the  rest  the  pews  were  of  the  square,  high- 
hacked  variety. 

But  of  all  the  desecration  committed  on  the 
church,  that  which  hurt  most  was  the  destruction 
and  dispersal  of  the  scholar's  library  housed  in  the 
steeple  by  the  pastor  of  the  church,  Thomas  Prince, 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  bibliophiles  of  his 
time.  The  Prince  Library,  now  deposited  with  the 
Boston  Public  Library,  is  known  to  connoisseurs  as 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  its  kind  and  in  many 
respects  unique.  Prince  at  the  age  of  sixteen  sys- 
tematically laid  the  foundation  of  this  collection 
of  books  and  manuscripts,  which  relate  to  the  civil 
and  religious  history  of  New  England,  and  with 
unflagging  zeal  cherished  and  enriched  the  collec- 
tion during  his  life.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-one  years,  his  library  is  thought 
to  have  been  the  most  extensive  of  its  kind  that  had 
ever  been  formed.  It  contained  in  its  depleted  state 
about  1,500  books  and  tracts  relating  to  America, 


406     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

amongst  them,  as  we  know,  the  famous  Bradford 
manuscript  Of  Plimotlt  Plantation,  and  the  Brad- 
ford "Letter  Book." 

This  library  Prince  acquired  partly  in  connection 
with  his  own  Annals  of  New  England;  his  own 
name  for  it  was  the  New  England  Library,  and 
many  books  bear  the  bookplate : 

This  Book  belongs  to 

The  New-England  Library 

Begun  to  be  collected  by  Thomas  Prince 

Upon  his  entry  Harvard-College,  July  6,  1703. 

Prince  bequeathed  his  collection  to  the  Old  South 
Church,  of  which  he  was  pastor  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  As  for  the  abuse  and  partial  dispersal  of 
the  library  a  great  deal  has  been  laid  at  the  doors 
of  the  British  troops,  who  are  accused  not  only  of 
burning  pews,  pulpit,  and  parsonage  (Winthrop's 
mansion)  as  fuel  during  their  riding  exercises  in 
the  old  building,  but  also  of  having  kindled  these 
illicit  fires  with  the  pages  of  Thomas  Prince's  rarest 
books  and  manuscripts. 

On  the  other  hand  very  little  is  said  of  the  con- 
dition in  which  the  British  soldiers  found  these 
books,  if  indeed  they  found  them  at  all,  a  condition 
which  surely  would  not  create  the  impression  of  a 
library  of  this  character.  It  is  casually  mentioned 
that  the  books  and  papers  were  deposited  on  shelves 


OLD   LANDMARKS  407 

and  in  boxes  and  barrels  in  a  room  in  the  steeple 
chamber,  under  the  belfry,  which  had  been  Prince's 
study,  and  that  they  had  been  left  there  for  years  - 
Prince  died  in  1758  —  without  care. 

Evidently  the  Old  South  congregation  did  not 
greatly  value  its  legacy  at  the  time  that  it  was  re- 
ceived, and  it  seems  just  as  evident  that  all  the  "  idle 
and  pilfering  hands  "  that  were  laid  upon  it  were 
not  those  of  British  soldiers,  for  the  spectators  in 
the  gallery  had  as  ready  access  to  the  steeple  cham- 
ber, and  such  books  as  later  turned  up,  bearing 
Prince's  name  or  the  bookplate  of  the  Xew  Eng- 
land Library,  were  mostly  excellent  selections,  and 
when  sold  brought  fabulous  prices. 

When  Washington  made  his  triumphal  entry 
into  Boston,  in  March,  1776,  he  entered  this  build- 
ing on  his  way  down  the  street  since  called  after 
him,  and  looked  down  from  the  east  gallery  on  the 
scene  of  desolation.  The  interior  was  restored  in 
1783. 

The  first  length  of  Washington  Street,  laid  from 
the  Old  State  House  to  the  Old  South  Church,  was 
called  Cornhill;  its  first  extension,  to  Summer 
Street,  was  Marlborough  Street,  so  called  in  com- 
memoration of  the  victory  at  Blenheim,  and  a  few 
years  later  the  "  wave  "  was  further  opened  under 
the  name  Newbury  Street. 


Amongst  the  first  group  of  buildings  must  have 
been  conspicuous  the  governor's  house,  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Spring  Lane,  the  first  Town  House,  a 
wooden  structure  on  the  site  of  the  present  Old 
State  House,  the  cedar  meeting-house,  and  the  first 
King's  Chapel,  built  of  wood,  in  1688,  upon  the 
border  of  the  Common. 

The  Old  State  House  marks  a  focal  point  for 
interest  in  historic  Boston.  The  town  began  around 
the  market  place,  which  was  at  the  head  of  a 
short  nameless  way,  appearing  on  the  earliest  map, 
leading  up  from  the  water  to  the  hills,  dotted  on 
both  sides  with  the  homes  of  the  first  settlers. 
Everything  in  Boston  seems  to  have  been  burned 
at  least  once.  The  first  Town  House,  we  read, 
stood  from  1658  to  1711,  when  it  was  destroyed  by 
fire.  Its  immediate  successor  shared  a  similar  fate, 
and  the  present  building  dates  from  1748,  the  bricks 
of  the  second  structure  having  been  used  in  its  re- 
construction. The  present  restoration,  dating  from 
1882,  was  thoroughly  done,  and  the  exterior  is  quite 
a  faithful  copy  of  the  old.  The  old  pitch  roof  was 
rebuilt  upon  the  original  timbers,  and  on  the  eastern 
gables  copies  of  the  lion  and  unicorn  of  the  original 
building  were  placed,  and  subsequently,  to  appease 
the  citizens  who  objected  to  this  part  of  the  restora- 
tion, a  gilt  eagle  was  set  up  on  the  western  front, 
with  the  State  and  City  Arms. 


ST.   PAUL  S  CATHEDRAL. 

FROM  AN   ETCHING   BY   SEARS   GALLAGHER. 


OLD    LANDMARKS  409 

As  the  royal  proclamations  had  been  read  from 
the  balcony  at  the  east  end,  so  from  the  same  place 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  read,  on  July 
18,  1776,  and,  as  the  finale  to  a  day  of  patriotic 
rejoicing,  a  huge  conflagration  was  made  in  King's 
Street,  in  the  square  before  the  State  House,  when 
all  the  royal  and  tory  symbols,  the  King's  Arms,  in 
whatever  form,  were  torn  from  their  settings  and 
burned  with  much  rejoicing.  The  lion  and  unicorn 
from  the  State  House  were  amongst  the  first  relics 
of  the  old  regime  to  be  cast  into  the  flames.  More 
than  a  century  later  Walter  Griffin,  the  landscape 
painter,  then  a  young  art  student,  working  at 
sculpture  for  a  livelihood,  while  studying  drawing 
and  painting  at  the  old  Boston  Museum  school,  was 
commissioned  by  the  architect  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion to  model  the  copies  which  replace  the  ancient 
signs. 

The  originals  were  in  bas-relief  and  Griffin's 
models  were  the  same,  but  the  wood  carver  cut  them 
in  full  relief,  which  accounts  for  their  odd  effect  as 
seen  from  the  rear.  When  they  were  placed  on  the 
building,  bright  with  gold,  the  Irish  party  then  in 
Boston  made  a  demonstration,  taken  up  by  the 
newspapers  of  the  time,  and  threatened  vengeance 
upon  the  sculptor  and  destruction  to  the  lion  and 
unicorn.  "  But,"  writes  Mr.  Griffin,  "  I  still  live, 


410    A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  on  my  last  visit  to  Boston  I  noticed  they  were 
still  in  place."  They  made  quite  the  picturesque 
feature  of  the  old  building. 

The  period  of  granite  building  in  Boston  Jbegan 
with  the  erection  of  King's  Chapel  in  4&iff,  from 

O  A.  * 

the  plans  of  the  distinguished  English  architect, 
Peter  Harrison,  a  pupil  of  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  and 
in  his  youth  employed  with  his  chief  upon  the  work 
at  Blenheim.  He  came  to  this  country  with  Dean 
Berkeley  and  Smibert  about  1729,  and  settled  at 
Newport,  building  there  the  .Redwood  Library, 
which  stands  a  well-known  monument  to  his  skill. 
King's  Chapel  then  was  the  first  building  in 
Boston  to  have  the  care  of  a  trained  architect  in  its 
design.  As  Peter  Harrison  planned  it  the  tower 
was  to  have  been  completed  by  a  lofty  spire,  but 
lack  of  funds  prevented  its  erection  as  well  as  that 
of  the  peristyle  which  surrounds  the  base  of  the 
tower,  this  being  not  added  until  1790.  King's 
Chapel  was  built  of  coarse  boulders  dug  out  of  the 
ground  and  split  and  hammered  according  to  the 
primitive  method  in  vogue  at  this  time.  There  is 
a  tradition  that  the  boulders  used  in  this  building 
were  split  by  building  a  fire  upon  the  stone  to  heat 
it,  and  then  breaking  it  apart  by  dropping  heavy 
iron  balls  upon  it.  When  the  work  was  finished  it 
was  the  wonder  of  the  countryside  and  people  trav- 


OLD   LANDMARKS  411 

elled  miles  to  gaze  upon  its  sober  charms.  At  the 
present  time  it  gives  to  this  lower  end  of  Tremont 
Street  a  cool,  serious  dignity,  standing  sentinel-like 
beside  the  graves  of  the  ancient  dead  in  its  shady 
burying-ground. 

To  this  quarter  was  added,  in  1809,  Park  Street 
Church  which  presides  so  quaintly  over  the  artless 
Common,  and,  in  1819,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  built 
by  Solomon  Willard,  the  architect  of  Bunker  Hill, 
and  Alpheus  Carey,  mason.  St.  Paul's  set  the  pace 
for  that  series  of  Greek  temples  which  sprung  up 
throughout  the  lower  part  of  the  city  in  the  next 
half  century.  The  capitals  of  the  columns  which 
support  the  pediment  were  carved  by  Willard,  and 
the  pediment  itself  was  to  have  contained  a  relief, 
in  stone,  of  Paul  preaching  at  Athens.  Requisite 
funds  were  wanting,  hov/ever,  to  carry  out  his 
design  and  the  rough-hewn  blocks  remain  to  this 
day. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


COPLEY  SQUARE,  while  presenting  every  appar- 
ent advantage  of  space  and  light  and  air,  fails  of  im- 
pressiveness  as  a  focal  point  of  some  importance, 
fails  notably  as  a  setting  for  Boston's  chief  archi- 
tectural monuments  —  Trinity  Church  and  the 
Public  Library  —  which  sit  tentatively  upon  its  un- 
yielding edges. 

The  mere  vacant  triangle,  outlined  by  parallel 
rulings  of  utilitarian  car  tracks,  after  the  manner  of 
a  mechanical  drawing,  offers  nothing  but  its  levelled 
grass  within  prim  granite  copings  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  empty  lot  it  so  stupidly  resembles ;  and  so 
far  from  drawing  the  neighbourhood  together,  in 
the  friendly  fashion  of  such  green  spaces,  serves 
rather  as  a  rigid  division  between  its  incompatible 
elements. 

The  whole  lamentable  inadequacy  of  Boylston 
Street  to  react  to  its  charming  environment,  to 
adapt  itself  by  any  contributed  beauty  of  facade 
worthy  of  the  border  of  such  handsome  greeneries 
as  the  Common  and  the  Garden,  the  latter,  however, 

412 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON  413 

somewhat  despoiled  by  the  emergence  of  the  sub- 
way along  its  southern  side,  culminates  in  the  anti- 
climax of  Copley  Square,  —  this  blank,  angular, 
wholly  negative  fragment,  which  marks  the  birth  of 
Huntington  Avenue  and  offers  cold  resistance  to 
the  appeal  of  opulent,  Romanesque  Trinity,  to  the 
charm  of  the  chaste  and  elegant  Florentine  library, 
to  the  clash  of  these  monumental  forces  with  the  late 
Centennial  remnants  on  Boylston  Street,  the 
whole  attempted  dignity  of  the  square  ebbing  away 
in  the  scallywag  outlets  towards  Roxbury  and  the 
rarefied  reaches  of  Brookline. 

If  ever  a  spot  invited  "  treatment,"  drastic  reor- 
ganization, Copley  Square  simply  cries  aloud  in  its 
plight,  cries  aloud  to  the  merest  passer-by,  to  the 
most  casual  of  loiterers.  What  it  must  say  to  archi- 
tects, to  local  architects  to  whom  its  case  is  an  un- 
ending reproach,  might  make  interesting  reading; 
but  where  doctors  disagree  nothing  is  done,  and 
though  plans  have  been  many  for  its  improvement, 
nothing  clever  enough  has  yet  been  devised  to  suit 
everybody,  nothing  clever  enough,  either  sunken 
garden  or  whatever,  to  unite  its  all  too  antipathetic 
features. 

The  name,  Copley  Square,  out  of  respect,  of 
course,  for  Boston's  celebrated  artist,  strays  away 
from  the  locality  of  the  painter's  estate  on  Beacon 


414     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Hill,  to  the  Back  Bay,  here  to  record  the  environ- 
ment of  the  old  Art  Museum,  the  first  building  of 
importance  to  pitch  upon  the  made  land  of  the  tide 
water  mud  flats.  It  stood,  where  now  stands  the 
Copley  Plaza  Hotel,  on  the  south  side  of  the  square, 
and  superseded  a  temporary  wooden  structure, 
known  as  the  Coliseum,  erected  at  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War  to  house  the  Peace  Jubilee  and  Music 
Festival,  conceived  by  the  famous  bandmaster,  Pat 
Gilmore. 

The  first  museum,  a  cheerful  brick  creation  with 
terra  cotta  trimmings,  presided  over  the  square  in 
homely,  genial  fashion  and  gave  the  note  to  the  new 
development  of  the  quarter.  Opened  in  1876,  the 
building  was  strictly  "  Centennial "  in  character, 
though  it  passed  officially  as  "  Venetian  Gothic." 
It  had  a  central  and  two  end  pavilions  with  gables ; 
its  first  story  presented  a  line  of  high,  arched  win- 
dows, above  which  were  mosaic  panels  and,  at  the 
ends,  two  large  allegorical  compositions  in  terra 
cotta,  representing  "  The  Genius  of  Art "  and  "  Art 
and  Industry."  Worked  into  the  decoration  also 
were  heads  in  relief  of  Copley,  Allston,  Crawford, 
and  other  famous  American  artists.  Its  roof  dis- 
played the  essential  skylights,  and,  whatever  its  de- 
fects, the  old  museum  had  at  least  one  great  advan- 
tage over  its  ambiguous  successor  in  Huntington 
Avenue,  it  looked  preeminently  its  part. 


EylTESTRIAN    STATUE  OK   CEORCE   WASHINGTON, 
BY  THOMAS  BALL,  BOSTON,    1859. 


SATNT   STEPHEN,   BY   DR.   RIMMEK. 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE   ARTS. 


FAI.UNC    GLADIATOR,    BY    DR.    RTMMKR. 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE    ARTS. 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  41.5 

It  came  as  the  culmination  of  an  artistic  impulse 
that  was  stirring  in  the  whole  of  the  regenerated 
Back  Bay.  The  laying  out  of  Commonwealth 
Avenue  suggested  sculpture,  and  as  early  as 
1864  Dr.  William  Rimmer,  the  physician-painter- 
sculptor,  had  received  a  commission  from  Thomas 
Lee,  a  citizen  of  Boston,  for  the  erection  of  the 
granite  statue  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  at  the  head 
of  the  avenue,  and  in  1869,  Thomas  Ball's  eques- 
trian of  Washington  was  placed  in  a  commanding 
position,  facing  it,  within  the  Garden. 

Boston's  public  monuments  are  chiefly  the  work 
of  Boston  sculptors,  either  native  or  adoptive.  The 
youth  of  Boston,  in  a  manner,  passed  through  the 
hands  of  Hunt,  who  brought  the  Millet  tradition  to 
America,  and  of  Dr.  Rimmer,  that  legendary  char- 
acter who  lived  and  died  in  obscurity  and  poverty 
in  Boston,  and  whose  importance  to  his  epoch  is 
only  beginning  to  glimmer  in  the  offing  of  the 
casual  mind.  Dr.  Rimmer's  lectures  in  anatomy 
were  famous  in  this  city  of  lectures,  and  were  widely 
attended  —  even  La  Farge  studied  under  him  — 
but,  aside  from  Mr.  Bartlett's  appreciation  of  the 
artist,1  his  name  has  been  allowed  to  lapse  almost 
utterly  into  oblivion. 

Rimmer  was  a  romantic  figure.    His  father,  pre- 

1  Art  T,!fe  of  Dr.  William  Rimmer,  by  Truman  H.  Bartlett. 


410     A  LOITERER   IX    NEW  ENGLAND 

sumably  a  French  noble,  assumed  the  name,  Rim- 
mer,  assumed  the  trade  of  cobbler,  lived  in  seclusion, 
but  educated  his  sons  to  be  idealists  and  gentlemen. 
Dr.  Rimmer's  contribution  to  the  art  of  his  city  is 
fragmentary,  he  had  a  touch  of  the  genuine  sacred 
fire,  but  never  wholly  developed  his  gift,  nothing 
that  he  did  is  an  unqualified  success.  At  the  Mu- 
seum of  Fine  Arts  may  be  studied  his  head  of  St. 
Stephen,  carved  in  granite,  and  his  "  Falling  Gladi- 
ator," in  bronze. 

About  the  year  1864,  some  influential  friends  of 
Rimmer's  obtained  for  him  a  commission  to  create 
for  a  conspicuous  location  in  the  new  Common- 
wealth Avenue  his  first  public  monument  — the 
Alexander  Hamilton.  Perhaps  the  statue  is  cu- 
rious rather  than  fine;  one  can  see  that  Rimmer 
was  not  quite  a  sculptor,  yet  the  thing  has  dignity 
and  an  admirable  simplicity,  an  artistic  quality 
lacking  in  many  of  the  more  pretentious  works 
of  well  known  men.  Among  the  numerous  inep- 
titudes of  local  sculptors,  which  have  in  one  way 
and  another  gained  foothold  in  the  city,  the  stone 
portrait  stands  its  ground  as  a  work  of  art,  how- 
ever incomplete. 

Really  serious  rivals  in  this  respect  in  Boston 
might  almost  be  limited  to  the  admirable  statue  of 
General  Warren,  by  Paul  Eartlett,  in  Roxbury, 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON  417 

and  Richard  E.  Brooks'  well  modelled  Colonel 
Cass,  in  the  Garden,  facing  Boylston  Street. 

The  subject  of  Mr.  Brooks'  statue,  Thomas  Cass, 
was  colonel  of  the  "Irish  Fighting  Ninth,"  Massa- 
chusetts Infantry.  After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
a  few  of  the  colonel's  old  sailors  raised  the  money 
for  a  monument  intended  for  the  cemetery,  to  mark 
the  grave  of  their  leader.  A  miserable  granite  fig- 
ure with  a  tin  sword  was  the  result,  with  which  a 
few  Irish  aldermen  of  Boston  were  so  pleased  that 
they  voted  to  have  it  put  in  the  Garden.  There  was 
in  those  days  no  art  commission  to  regulate  matters 
of  civic  adornment  and  the  statue  stood  a  disgrace 
to  the  city,  until  Josiah  Quincy  became  mayor,  when 
he  proposed  to  take  down  the  old  figure  and  Mr. 
Brooks  was  commissioned  to  make  the  present 
statue.  At  this  time  the  sculptor  was  living  in 
Paris.  His  statue  exhibited  at  the  Salon  of  1898 
received  a  gold  medal;  shown  again  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1900  it  received  another  and  at  the 
Pan  American  Exposition,  a  third. 

Disdaining  models  or  any  creature  comforts,  Dr. 
Rimmer  made  the  model  for  his  statue  in  eleven 
days,  in  the  month  of  December,  1864.  He  worked 
in  an  unoccupied  and  unheated  church,  in  Chelsea, 
suffering  the  enormous  inconvenience  of  the  freez- 
ing of  the  clay,  and  subjecting  himself  to  every 


418     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

hardship.  The  statue  was  cut  at  Quincy,  in  Con- 
cord granite,  and  the  completed  figure  was  erected 
in  1865,  upon  a  pedestal  designed  by  Colonel  Cabot, 
ornamented  by  three  profiles  of  Washington.  Ham- 
ilton, and  Jay,  in  a  single  medallion,  modelled  by 
the  sculptor. 

Hamilton,  as  Dr.  Rimmer  conceived  him,  wears 
the  ruffled  stock,  the  tight  coat  of  the  period,  and  a 
toga,  caught  over  his  left  arm,  drops  about  his  feet, 
giving  strength  to  the  base.  The  head  is  a  convinc- 
ing portrait,  it  has  the  living  quality;  the  stone, 
though  worn,  has  a  soft,  fleshy  character  through 
the  coat,  and  one  feels  that  the  structure  is  there. 

Thomas  Ball's  equestrian  portrait  of  Washing- 
ton, which  stands  with  gallantry  and  commands  the 
prospect  of  Boston's  wide  avenue  from  the  head  of 
the  Garden,  is  one  of  the  earliest  monuments  erected 
in  Boston,  was  the  first  equestrian  placed  in  New 
England,  and  the  fourth  in  the  United  States.  It 
was  unveiled  in  1869. 

Considering  the  difficulties  under  which  he  la- 
boured and  the  inexperience  of  the  sculptor,  the 
group  is  remarkably  successful.  Ball  had  not  the 
strength,  the  mentality,  nor  the  education  of  Ward, 
whose  equestrian  of  the  same  subject  dominates 
Union  Square,  in  New  York,  yet  he  presents  his 
subject  with  style,  and  his  own  simple  and  human 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  419 

autobiography  shows  a  man  of  so  little  personal 
vanity  and  so  much  integrity  of  purpose  as  to  dis- 
arm criticism. 

We  may  gather,  from  an  allusion  in  the  auto- 
biography, that  a  desire  to  make  a  statue  of  Wash- 
ington had  lurked  in  Ball's  head  ever  since  a  visit 
made  in  his  extreme  youth,  hand  in  hand  with  a 
greatly  loved  father,  to  the  State  House  to  see 
Chantrey's  Washington,  which  had  recently  been 
placed.  His  father  inviting  his  opinion,  the  child 
asked  with  naivete,  "  if  that  wras  a  real  sheet 
wrapped  around  him."  "  I  was  very  young  then," 
writes  Ball,  "  but  I  have  many  times  since  looked  at 
it  and  never  wondered  why  I  asked  the  question." 

The  rigours  of  the  New  England  winter  figure 
largely  in  all  these  accounts  of  early  sculpture  and 
painting;  one  wonders  why  they  did  not  wait  for 
mild  weather,  or  was  it  the  New  England  con- 
science which  revelled  in  hardship?  Ball  modelled 
his  group,  he  tells  us,  in  plaster,  instead  of  clay,  on 
account  of  the  impossibility  of  keeping  the  temper- 
ature of  his  studio  above  freezing  on  winter  nights. 
He  made  a  primitive  skeleton  structure  of  his  own 
invention  upon  which  he  built  up  the  figure  with  his 
own  hands  in  plaster,  passing  the  whole  of  the 
colossal  group,  to  say  nothing  of  the  waste,  through 
a  two  quart  bowl.  Not  the  least  interesting  detail 


420     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  the  modelling  is  the  bent  foreleg,  with  which  Ball 
had  untold  difficulties.  In  the  end  Hunt,  the 
painter,  was  called  in  consultation,  and  the  leg  as  it 
stands  is  his  work. 

The  best  thing  one  knows  of  Ball's  young  ap- 
prentice, Martin  Milmore,  is  French's  memorial  — 
"  Death  Staying  the  Hand  of  the  Young  Sculptor  " 
—  erected  to  the  memory  of  his  fellow  student  in 
Forest  Hills  Cemetery.  This  is  a  youthful  work  of 
Daniel  Chester  French;  it  brought  him  his  first 
recognition,  a  medal  at  the  Salon  of  1892,  and  the 
relief  has  a  charm  which  the  sculptor  has  never 
surpassed. 

Civic  consciousness  in  Boston,  fostered  by  the 
erection  of  the  early  monuments,  brought  about 
ambitions  for  modish,  imported  architecture.  In 
1870  Henry  Hobson  Richardson,  having  returned 
opportunely  from  years  of  study  in  Paris,  with  all 
the  lore  of  the  Beaux  Arts  at  his  fingers'  ends,  won 
the  competition  for  the  new  Brattle  Square  Church, 
on  Commonwealth  Avenue,  with  its  beautiful 
tower,  interesting  as  showing  Richardson's  first 
approach  to  Romanesque  work,  important  as  the 
precursor  of  his  chef  d'ceuvre,  Trinity  Church,  in 
Copley  Square. 

Richardson  had  not  to  plume  himself  wholly  upon 
the  success  of  this  building.  Both  practically  and 


COLONEL  THOMAS  CASS, 
BY  RICHARD  E.  BROOKS. 
PUBLIC  GARDENS,  BOSTON. 


COLONEL    THOMAS    CASS. 
STATUE    IN 

THE   BOSTON    PUBLIC   GARDENS. 
BY    RICHARD   E.    BROOKS. 


Copyright,  D.  C.  French 


DEATH    STAYING    THE    HANI)    OK    THE    SCULPTOR, 
BY    DANIEL    CHESTER    FRENCH. 
FOREST   HILLS   CEMETERY. 


X 

MONUMENTAL   BOSTON          421 

artistically  it  fell  short  of  the  mark.  Its  acoustics 
were  poor  and  there  is  a  lack  of  correlation  between 
the  small  cruciform  church  and  its  lofty  tower.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  chief  intrinsic  beauty  of  the 
church  is  also  its  chief  defect,  for,  spurning  the 
support  of  the  adjacent  walls,  the  tower  rises  like  a 
campanile,  with  a  superb  gesture  of  strength  and 
independence  that  seems  to  cast  off  the  cluttering 
of  the  earth-bound  house  of  worship. 

The  feature  of  the  tower  is  a  frieze  of  sculptured 
stone,  modelled  by  Bartholdi,  and  carved  by  Italian 
workmen  in  place.  The  French  sculptor  had  come 
to  this  country,  just  after  I'annee  terrible,  to  work 
upon  his  Liberty  for  the  New  York  Harbour,  mak- 
ing his  model  for  the  statue  in  La  Farge's  studio. 
It  was  there  that  he  met  Richardson,  acepting  joy- 
ously a  commission,  which  certain  prominent  New 
York  sculptors  had  refused  as  a  mere  stone-cutter's 
job,  and  executing  the  models  in  Paris.  The  sub- 
jects show  the  Wedding,  Baptism ,  Communion,  and 
Death  in  four  panels  joined  at  the  corners  by  trum- 
peting angels.  The  material  is  a  light-coloured 
stone  and  the  angels'  trumpets  are  gilded.  The 
roof  is  of  red  tiles.  Tower  and  church  are  built 
of  warm,  yellow-tinted  pudding  stone,  streaked 
with  darker  iron  stains  that  relieve  monotony  and 
accent  the  trimmings.  Into  the  relief  Bartholdi  in- 


422     A  LOITERER   IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

troduced  several  contemporary  portraits,  including 
those  of  Richardson  and  La  Farge. 

The  tower  has  always  been  a  favourite  with  the 
people  of  Boston  and  when,  only  a  few  years  after 
its  erection,  the  church  came  upon  the  market  and 
was  threatened  with  demolition,  there  was  a  move- 
ment to  save  at  least  the  tower  and  to  leave  it  stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  a  little  park,  to  which  end  some 
money  was  subscribed.  The  situation  was  saved, 
however,  by  the  purchase  of  the  church  by  its  pres- 
ent occupant,  the  First  Baptist  Society. 

The  Brattle  Square  Church,  or  rather  its  tower, 
made  in  a  way  a  reputation  for  its  architect,  and 
when,  at  about  the  time  of  its  completion,  Trinity 
Church  decided  to  renounce  its  ancient  location  on 
Summer  Street,  in  the  old  Bulfinch  neighbourhood, 
for  something* more- specious  and  central  on  Copley 
Square,  Richardson  was  asked  to  compete  for  the 
design. 

In  1867,  two  years  after  his  return  to  America, 
Richardson  entered  into  partnership  with  Charles 
Gambrill,  in  New  York,  a  partnership  which  lasted 
until  1878.  Gambrill  was  the  business  man  of  the 
firm,  Richardson  the  creative  artist,  and  though 
Trinity  was  designed  under  the  firm  name,  it  was 
not  the  product  of  joint  labour,  but  Richardson's 
own.  In  the  competition  he  measured  his  strength 


MONUMENTAL    HOSTOX          4-2,'J 

with  some  of  the  best  men  of  the  day  —  Richard  M. 
Hunt,  John  II.  Sturgis,  Peabody  and  Stearns, 
Ware  and  Van  Brunt,  and  W.  A.  Potter.  The 
fame  of  its  rector,  the  wealth  of  the  congregation, 
the  conspicuous  site,  its  isolation  upon  an  irregular 
piece  of  land,  open  on  all  sides,  were  all  points 
which  made  the  competition  for  this  church  a  great 
opportunity  for  a  young  architect. 

At  the  time  of  the  burning  of  the  old  New  Trinity 
on  Summer  street,  in  the  fire  of  187*2,  the  project  for 
the  new  building  was  well  advanced.  Richardson's 
design  had  been  chosen  and  was  being  carried  out 
with  much  elaboration.  The  character  of  the  design 
and  the  nature  of  the  ground  brought  problems  for 
the  solution  of  which  no  familiar  precedent  existed. 

As  Richardson  himself  explains,  the  ground  con- 
sisted of  a  compact  stratum  overlaid  by  a  quantity 
of  alluvium  upon  which  a  mass  of  gravel  about 
thirty  feet  deep  had  been  filled.  Upon  such  a  foun- 
dation was  to  be  built  a  structure  whose  main  fea- 
ture was  a  tower  weighing  nearly  nineteen  million 
pounds  and  supported  upon  four  piers. 

The  problem  has  been  ingeniously  met.  The 
plan  of  the  church  is  a  Latin  Cross  with  a  semicir- 
cular apse  added  to  the  eastern  arm.  The  style  is 
a  free  rendering  of  the  French  Romanesque,  as 
known  in  the  "peaceful,  enlightened,  and  isolated 


424     A   LOITEUEK   IX   NEW   ENGLAND 

cities  of  Auvergue."  (1  quote  the  architect.)  The 
central  tower,  a  reminiscence  perhaps  of  the  domes 
of  Venice  and  Constantinople,  was  here  fully  de- 
veloped so  that  the  tower  becomes  in  a  sense  the 
church  and  the  composition  takes  on  the  outline  of 
a  pyramid,  the  apse,  transepts,  nave,  and  chapels 
forming  only  the  base  to  the  obelisk  of  the  tower. 
The  building  faces  three  streets,  and  the  tower, 
centrally  placed,  belongs  equally  to  each  front. 

Within,  decidedly  the  most  interesting  feature  of 
the  construction  is  the  four  piers  which  support  the 
enormous  weight  of  the  tower.  Richardson  ex- 
plains that  he  intended  to  leave  these  bare  to  show 
the  massive  character  of  the  stone,  but  as  the  decora- 
tion of  the  church  progressed,  under  La  Farge, 
they  proved  to  be  too  cold  in  colour  to  harmonize 
with  the  warmth  of  the  growing  interior.  They 
rest  fundamentally  upon  piles  and  their  bases  de- 
scend step  by  step  in  a  widening  area  until  the  four 
meet  in  a  common  subterranean  foundation. 

Trinity  Church  offered  to  La  Farge  his  first  op- 
portunity for  important  mural  painting.  The  ar- 
chitect and  artist  had  met  some  years  before,  but, 
according  to  the  latter's  own  word,  Richardson  be- 
lieved in  him  and  offered  him  the  job  without  much 
proof  of  his  ability.  The  two  were  of  about  the 
same  age  —  La  Farge  was  three  years  the  elder  — 


MONUMENTAL    HOSTOX          425 

and  had  received  something  of  the  same  training  in 
Europe  and  shared  one  another's  enthusiasms.  Only 
impetuous  youth  would  have  attempted  what  these 
two  undertook  so  blithely,  achieved  so  brilliantly, 
for  as  the  painter  writes  "  from  first  talk  to  finished 
work  "  he  had  scarce  five  months  in  which  to  deco- 
rate the  church. 

Richardson  put  the  project  before  him  in  Sep- 
tember, 1876,  and  his  promise  was  to  complete  it 
by  the  end  of  the  year.  When  La  Farge  and  his 
assistants  set  to  work  the  church  was  in  an  unfin- 
ished state  and  in  incredible  confusion  the  artists, 
wearing  overcoats  and  gloves  against  the  bitter 
vagaries  of  the  oncoming  New  England  winter, 
which  howled  through  the  open  windows  and  roof, 
competed  with  masons,  tilers,  and  carpenters  for 
foothold  upon  the  common  scaffoldings.  From 
time  to  time  a  tile  would  fall  through  a  hole  in 
the  roof  and  kill  a  man,  four  workmen  were  thus 
sacrificed,  but  it  was  not  until  a  falling  plank  just 
grazed  Phillips  Brooks  himself,  who  happened  to 
be  in  the  church,  that  the  committee  detailed  an 
extra  man  to  watch  the  dangerous  hole. 

American  mural  painting  was  at  this  time  in  its 
incipiency.  There  is  an  amusing  record  in  Hunt- 
ington  Hall,  the  central  building  of  the  old  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  of  one  of  the  earliest  attempts 


42()     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

at  decoration  in  this  country.  This  is  a  restored 
frieze  representing  the  industrial  arts,  taught  in  the 
school,  painted  in  1871,  by  Paul  Nefflen,  of  Wiir- 
temberg,  who  came  to  this  country,  in  1851,  and 
occupied  a  studio  in  Tremont  Street.  There  were 
twenty  panels  done  in  water  colour  directly  on  the 
plaster.  During  the  summer  of  1898,  in  the  course 
of  an  access  of  zeal  in  house  cleaning,  these  decora- 
tions were  scrubbed  off.  Later  they  were  restored 
from  the  original  cartoons,  by  students  in  the  ar- 
chitectural department.  According  to  the  restora- 
tions they  were  little  more  than  delicately  coloured 
outline  drawings. 

It  was  five  years  later  that  La  Farge  began 
his  work  for  Trinity,  and  still  later  that  William 
Morris  Hunt  made  his  interesting  experiment  in 
decoration  for  the  Capitol  at  Albany. 

Under  La  Farge  worked  Frank  Millet,  George 
Maynard,  John  Du  Fais,  Francis  Lathrop,  Sidney 
Smith,  George  L.  Rose,  and  many  minor  painters, 
for,  as  he  says,  the  need  was  so  great  that  almost 
anybody  was  pressed  into  service.  Often,  he  tells 
us,  designs  that  were  to  be  painted  on  the  day  were 
prepared  only  the  night  before,  so  that  the  tension 
was  very  great.  In  the  end  La  Farge  got  a  brief 
extension  of  time,  finishing  the  work  in  February, 
in  time  for  the  dedication.  Despite  the  great  speed 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  427 

with  which  he  worked  the  decorations  as  a  whole 
present  an  agreeable  unity  and  richness. 

'  The  amusing  point  to  me,"  says  La  Farge,1 
"  was  the  application  of  certain  Romanesque  origi- 
nals to  the  spans  I  had  before  me  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  great  deal  of  very  fine  calculated  detail 
into  passages  of  necessary  simplicity,  and  also  the 
doing  of  this  at  a  gallop.  I  think  in  one  space,  fif- 
teen feet  square,  there  is  not  more  than  three  or 
four  days'  work,  and  everything  was  done  in  that 
way,  but  with  extreme  care,  a  care  I  have  very 
rarely  seen  repeated  in  any  modern  work  by  any- 
body, unless  perhaps  we  take  some  of  the  work  of 
Mr.  Sargent,  on  which  he  has  spent  years  and  years 
of  careful  thought  and  elaboration.  Part  of  my 
work,  you  know,  is  covered  by  the  facing  of  the 
organ  at  the  west  end,  so  that  that  elaboration  is 
hidden  and  the  lines  of  my  general  composition  are 
more  or  less  destroyed.  So  of  course  all  through 
the  building  the  new  additions  are  not  connected 
with  the  old  lines." 

The  job  stands  as  one  of  the  extremely  interest- 
ing efforts  at  mural  painting  in  the  country,  pre- 
senting a  quality  of  style  and  bigness,  of  glowing 
colour,  and  richness  of  detail;  a  massive  ensemble 
eminently  in  accord  with  the  style  of  the  architec- 

1  John  La  Farge,  a  Memoir  and  a  Study.     Royal  Cortissoz. 


428     A  LOITERER   IX   NEW  EXGLAXD 

ture.  The  great  hieratic  figures  which  fill  the  vast 
spaces  of  the  tower  dominate,  animate  as  with  liv- 
ing august  presences,  the  dusky  richness  of  the 
Romanesque  interior;  the  graceful  angels  adapt 
themselves  fancifully  to  the  curves  of  the  arches  and 
give  relief,  lightness,  and  charm.  The  success  of 
Trinity  Church  established  La  Farge  as  a  leader  in 
mural  painting  and  in  the  summer  of  1877  he  was 
asked  to  decorate  St.  Thomas'  Church  in  New 
York,  and  so  he  was  launched. 

Richardson's  plan  for  the  porch  carried  some 
twenty-five  feet  forward  beyond  the  facade,  was 
not  completed  until  1895,  some  years  after  the 
death  of  the  architect.  Amongst  other  later  addi- 
tions is  a  part  of  the  original  tracery  from  a  window 
of  the  ancient  church  of  St.  Botolph,  in  Boston, 
Lincolnshire,  of  which  John  Cotton  was  rector  until 
he  came  to  New  England,  in  1633.  This  was  pre- 
sented by  the  vicar  of  St.  Botolph's  and  placed  here 
as  a  memorial  of  the  church  of  the  Forefathers. 

The  bust  of  Phillips  Brooks  in  the  Baptistry  is 
by  Daniel  Chester  French.  Of  the  varied  windows 
the  small  square  one,  in  beautiful  red  tones,  over 
the  altar  in  the  Baptistry,  was  designed  by  Burne- 
Jones  and  executed  by  William  Morris.  There  are 
other  windows  by  Burne-Jones  and  William  Morris 
and  several  by  La  Farge. 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  429 

If  Trinity  Church  established  Richardson  as  one 
of  the  first  architects  of  the  country,  it  also  fixed 
upon  him,  for  his  remaining  years,  the  Romanesque 
style  which  he  here  handled  in  its  most  picturesque 
grandeur.  Its  romantic,  half-savage  strength, 
mitigated  by  traces  of  refinement,  the  heritage  of 
the  luxury  of  the  late  Roman  Empire,  appealed  to 
him  strangely,  answered  to  something  native  in 
himself. 

The  transition  from  sumptuous  Trinity  to  the 
cool  simplicity  of  the  Public  Library  is  one  that 
requires  some  mental  readjustment,  especially  in 
view  of  the  barren  square  upon  which  they  compete 
for  domination.  When  the  promised  sunken  gar- 
den, with  its  marble  balustrades,  flights  of  steps, 
trees,  shrubbery,  fountain,  and  statuary,  shall  have 
added  its  softening  influence  to  the  crude  realities 
there  will  be  a  neutral  ground  in  which  to  turn 
round,  in  which  to  prepare  the  mind  for  the  jump 
from  Romanesque  to  Romanic  or  Florentine  or 
whatever.  And  we  are  promised  too  that  the 
sunken  garden  will  react  especially  in  the  interest  of 
the  library,  will  give  it  apparent  height,  will  relieve 
the  slightly  monotonous  facade. 

However  great  the  transition  there  is  one  strong 
bond  between  Trinity  and  the  library;  the  archi- 
tects of  the  latter  structure  were  trained  in  Richard- 


430     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

son's  atelier.  Stanford  White  was  first  assistant  in 
the  building  of  Trinity,  Charles  Follen  McKim 
worked  on  the  winning  design.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  to  the  earlier  architect,  who  with  Richard  Hunt 
had  been  the  dominant  influence  in  the  profession  in 
America,  the  young  firm  owed  much  of  its 
thoroughness  and  skill. 

Though  the  library  is  credited  to  the  firm, 
McKim,  Mead,  and  White,  it  is  well  understood 
that  the  senior  partner  was  the  actual  architect,  de- 
signing the  building  from  cellar  to  roof-tree. 
McKim  was  a  Pennsylvania  Quaker.  Richardson 
was  of  the  warm,  southern  temperament.  His 
father  was  an  Englishman,  born  in  Bermuda,  his 
mother  a  Priestly,  of  Louisiana  —  a  granddaughter 
of  the  discoverer  of  oxygen.  Richardson  passed  his 
boyhood  in  New  Orleans.  He  was  built  upon  a 
generous  scale.  Large,  handsome,  exotic,  with 
huge  round  eyes,  he  looked  as  thoroughly  the  artist 
as  the  trencherman,  and  the  memory  of  his  hunger 
comes  down  with  that  of  his  stupendous  capacity 
for  work  and  the  vast  resources  of  his  mind.  "  A 
pitcher  of  water,  a  pitcher  of  champagne,  a  pitcher 
of  milk,"  these  were  his  portions,  with  food  to 
correspond.  "  His  work,  himself,  his  appetite, 
everything,"  says  La  Farge,  "was  on  a  grand 
scale." 


ENTRANCE,   BOSTON    PUBLIC   LIBRARY. 


($ 


STATUE   OK    SIR    1IKXRY    VANE,    BY    FREDERICK     MAC  MONNIES. 
PUBLIC  LIBRARY,  BOSTON. 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON          431 

Cass  Gilbert  has  recorded  his  memory  of  a  first 
encounter  with  the  architect,  and  his  impression  of 
a  man  of  swarthy  complexion  and  huge  proportions, 
of  a  flaming  note  of  colour  in  a  large  red  and  yellow 
tie  "that  looked  as  though  trying  to  escape  from 
his  waistcoat  and  set  fire  to  the  building."  He  was 
a  man  of  extraordinary  appearance,  says  Gilbert, 
but  with  a  singularly  charming  voice  and  manner. 

The  picture  of  McKim  is  that  of  a  more  ascetic 
type,  a  man  of  conservative  traditions.  While  his 
technique  was  superb,  his  knowledge  profound,  he 
had  not  the  originality,  the  invention,  nor  the 
abundant  nature  of  his  chief. 

Most  of  McKim's  buildings  were  pretty  directly 
inspired  by  celebrated  European  models,  many  of 
them  were  almost  literal  importations.  The  imme- 
diate source  of  the  Public  Library  was  the  Biblio- 
theque  Sainte  Genevieve,  in  Paris,  a  building  dat- 
ing from  the  epoch  of  Louis  Philippe,  a  building 
itself  inspired  by  the  palaces  of  Florence.  So  close 
a  copy  of  its  prototype  in  the  Place  du  Pantheon, 
does  the  facade  of  the  library  present,  that  it  has 
been  said,  with  some  exaggeration,  that  the  only 
difference  is  such  as  would  be  caused  by  tracing 
with  a  blunt  pencil.  With  it  have  been  combined 
details  from  other  celebrated  buildings.  The  in- 
terior court  is  almost  a  facsimile  of  the  lower  ar- 


432     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

cade  of  the  Palazzo  Cancellaria,  at  Rome;  the 
doorways  to  the  entrance  hall,  from  the  vestibule, 
are  exact  copies  of  the  entrance  of  the  Erectheion 
or  Temple  of  Erectheus  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens. 

As  is  usual  in  the  work  of  McKim,  Mead,  and 
White  the  best  of  available  artists  were  associated 
with  the  architects  in  carrying  out  the  details  of  the 
work,  so  that,  within  and  without,  the  library  be- 
comes quite  the  thing  to  see  in  Boston,  presenting 
as  it  does  perhaps  the  most  perfect  specimen  of  the 
restrained  use  of  decoration  of  the  highest  type. 
Everything  was  done  in  a  leisurely  manner  —  Mr. 
Sargent  is  still  working  on  his  panels  for  the  side 
walls  of  the  Sargent  Hall  —  with  a  view  to  making 
the  result  of  permanent  value.  The  cornerstone 
was  laid  in  1888  and  the  building  was  finished  in 
1895. 

Saint-Gaudens  made  the  helmeted  head  of  Min- 
erva on  the  keystone  of  the  centre  arch  and  the 
three  panels  representing  the  seals  of  the  library, 
the  city,  and  the  commonwealth,  which  so  richly 
adorn  the  entrance.  The  seal  of  the  library,  which 
occupies  the  central  position  is  from  a  design  by 
Kenyon  Cox,  adapted  by  Saint-Gaudens  with  con- 
siderable freedom  from  the  metal  die  to  the  marble 
tablet.  The  line  of  medallions,  cut  in  granite,  in  the 
spandrels  of  the  window  arches,  copied  from  the 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  4138 

trade  devices  of  the  early  printers  and  booksellers, 
mostly  of  the  sixteenth  century,  were  modelled  by 
Domingo  Mora. 

The  sculpture  before  the  entrance  was  assigned  to 
Augustus  Saint-Gaudens,  but  since  he  died  before 
accomplishing  it,  the  commission  was  passed  to 
Bela  Pratt,  a  resident  sculptor,  or  rather  he  some- 
how contrived  to  have  his  two  heavy  figures  placed 
upon  the  pedestals  left  vacant  for  the  Saint- 
Gaudens,  groups.  These  may  be  considered  amongst 
the  positive  mistakes  of  the  charming  edifice,  while 
its  negative  error  was  the  failure  to  accept  Mac- 
Monnies'  joyous  Bacchante,  with  which  McKim,  at 
no  expense  to  the  city,  sought  to  egayer  the  rather 
sober  court. 

The  true  story  of  the  Bacchante  is  a  charming 
one  until  it  meets  with  the  attitude  of  the  trustees 
who  rejected  it  as  unsuited  to  the  dignity  of  their 
court.  It  was  a  pure  love  offering  from  the  sculp- 
tor to  the  architect  and  from  the  architect  to  the 
city.  MacMonnies,  who  as  a  boy  in  Saint-Gaudens' 
atelier  had  won  the  affection  and  sympathy  of  the 
great  men  who  had  haunted  the  place,  had  accepted 
a  small  loan  from  McKim  when  first  he  felt  himself 
rich  enough  to  sail  for  Paris  and  study.  The  loan 
had  been  long  repaid,  when  MacMonnies,  now  also 
a  famous  man,  found  himself  the  author  of  his 


434     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

beautiful  Bacchante,  a  figure  made  for  himself, 
with  no  thought  as  to  its  destination.  The  young 
sculptor  felt  himself  still  under  the  obligation  of 
McKim's  early  kindness  and  as  an  expression  of  his 
eternal  gratitude  offered  his  friend  the  original 
bronze  as  a  gift. 

McKim,  as  we  seem  to  divine,  was  delighted  with 
the  group,  thought  it  so  beautiful  as  to  merit  the 
most  exalted  of  places,  and  not  to  be  outdone  by  his 
young  friend's  generosity,  presented  it  handsomely 
to  the  trustees  of  his  new  bu  Jding  as  a  most  worthy 
centre  for  the  fountain  in  the  court.  Whereupon 
Boston  reverted  to  type.  All  that  was  Puritan, 
brutally  intolerant  came  to  the  surface.  The 
charming  statue  created  a  perfect  frenzy  of  antag- 
onism ;  it  was  denounced  in  the  most  repellant  man- 
ner by  the  journals  of  the  city,  and  the  trustees  re- 
fused to  have  the  solemnity  of  the  library  courtyard 
broke  in  upon  by  "an  inebriated  reeling  female, 
and  a  depraved  infant."  The  Literary  World 1  re- 
viled it  as  "  an  affront  of  the  grossest  character  to 
the  best  sentiments  of  the  community,"  and  went 
off  in  paroxisms  over  the  temptations,  excitations, 
and  debasement  of  standards  of  the  youth  who  fre- 
quent the  library. 

McKim  made  the  most  eloquent  of  answers.    He 

1  November  28,  1896. 


"BACCHANTE",  BY  FREDERICK  MAC  MONNIES, 
OFFERED  BY  MCKIM 

FOR  THE  COURT  OF  THE  BOSTON  PUBLIC  LIBRARY. 
OWNED  BY  THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM,  NEW  YORK. 


COLONNADE,   BOSTON    PfHI.IC   L1HRARY. 

SHOWING    FRAGMENT   Ol-    THE   MuSCS,    BY    PUVIS'  1)E   CHAVANNES. 


Copyriylit,  lf>l(>,  lioxton  Public  Library.  Employees  Association 
Copyright,  1916,  Trustee*  H»»tmt  Library 


MATER    H01.0ROSA.    HV     |()HX    SINT.ER    SARCKNT. 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON          435 

withdrew  his  gift  and  presented  it  to  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum.  Later  the  Luxembourg  Museum 
ordered  a  replica,  and  we  even  find  one  now  tucked 
away  in  a  corner  of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts. 

Immediately  to  the  left  of  the  entrance,  in  the 
vestibule,  is  MacMonnies'  statue  of  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  the  cavalier  governor  of  Massachusetts  in 
1036-1637,  given  to  the  library  by  Dr.  Charles  God- 
dard  Weld,  of  Boston,  in  honour  of  James  Free- 
man Clarke,  the  Unitarian  divine,  a  trustee  of  the 
library.  The  subject  has  appealed  to  MacMonnies 
and  he  has  thrown  himself  into  the  re-creation  of  a 
charming  personality,  the  combination  of  gallan- 
try and  gentleness,  of  bravery  and  refinement. 
Vane  distinguished  himself  during  his  short  term  as 
governor  by  his  tolerance  and  liberality  of  mind. 
These  qualities  served  to  defeat  him  for  reelection, 
but  he  was  immediately  returned  to  the  General 
Court  by  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  by  whom  he 
was  greatly  beloved. 

Daniel  Chester  French  made  the  three  great 
bronze  doors  of  the  entrance  hall,  considered 
amongst  his  most  important  work.  The  six  valves 
present  panels  with  a  single  figure  in  low  relief, 
representing  Music  and  Poetry,  Knowledge  and 
Wisdom,  and  Truth  and  Romance. 


436     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  interior  of  the  lihrary  is  so  well  known  and 
has  heen  so  widely  advertised  as  to  need  but  a  word 
of  comment.  Its  most  distinguished  feature  is  the 
grand  stairway  of  polished  marble  which  leads  to 
the  main  floor.  The  two  majestic  lions  which  guard 
the  landing,  which  gives  upon  the  court,  are  by 
Louis  Saint-Gaudens. 

The  effectiveness  of  the  stairway  is  nobly  en- 
hanced by  the  panels  of  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  the 
greatest  of  contemporary  French  mural  painters. 
Of  the  three  series  of  decorations  in  the  library 
these  pure  conceptions  of  the  Gallic  master  most 
perfectly  reveal  the  art.  Puvis  in  a  few  simple 
phrases  reproduced  upon  the  cards,  which  lie  about 
the  corridor  for  general  information,  gives  the 
spectator  the  keynote  of  his  subject,  otherwise 
leaving  his  beautifully  clear  renditions  to  speak 
for  themselves. 

The  decoration  for  the  wall  of  the  corridor  was 
first  placed;  the  painter  called  it:  Les  Muses  In- 
spiratrices  Acclament  le  Genie  Messager  de  Lu- 
miere,  a  work  nobly  conceived,  simply  executed, 
the  largest  and  most  important  of  the  nine  panels, 
it  has  also  the  merit  of  being  the  most  original,  that 
is  to  say  it  is  reminiscent  of  nothing  else  that  Puvis 
has  done.  Perhaps  it  most  resembles  his  great  dec- 
oration in  his  native  city,  Lyons.  Placed  in  1895,  it 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON          437 

is  a  work  of  his  old  age  —  he  died  in  1898  just  after 
the  completion  of  this  commission. 

The  Genius  of  Enlightenment,  represented  by  a 
nude  boy,  occupies  the  centre  of  the  composition. 
He  alights  upon  a  cloud,  with  wings  outstretched, 
and  holds  the  rays  of  light  above  his  head  in  his  two 
hands.  Rising  from  the  ground,  the  white-robed 
muses  move  slowly  towards  the  Genius,  extending 
their  arms  or  softly  striking  their  lyres  to  welcome 
him.  The  foreground  is  the  summit  of  a  hill,  cov- 
ered writh  grass  and  heather.  Slender  saplings 
with  delicately  decorative  leaves  grow  along  its 
crest.  Beyond  is  the  sea.  The  composition  is 
broken  by  the  doorway  leading  into  Bates  Hall, 
and  by  way  of  tying  the  painting  to  its  architecture, 
the  painter  has  introduced  the  figures  of  Study  and 
Contemplation,  in  monochrome,  with  the  effect  of 
sculpture,  to  harmonize  with  the  mellow  marbles 
and  bear  up  the  straight  lines  of  the  doorway. 

Out  of  this  composition,  Puvis  explains,  others 
have  developed  which  answer  to  the  four  great  ex- 
pressions of  the  human  mind  —  Poetry,  Philosophy, 
History,  and  Science.  The  eight  panels  which  com- 
plete the  tour  of  the  walls  of  the  stairway  represent 
in  charming,  free  allegory,  Pastoral,  Dramatic, 
and  Epic  Poetry;  History,  Astronomy,  and  Phil- 
osophy; Chemistry  and  Physics. 


438     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Abbey's  commission  presented  a  different  prob- 
lem. His  series,  The  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail, 
occupies  a  frieze  around  the  walls  of  the  Delivery 
Room,  a  dark,  sombre,  palatial  apartment,  with 
heavy  and  elaborate  marble  mantel  and  doorways, 
and  a  fifteenth  century  Italian  ceiling  of  painted 
rafters.  The  decorations,  while  open  to  criticism 
from  the  point  of  view  of  mural  paintings,  are  im- 
mensely characteristic  of  the  anecdotal  style 
painter.  They  illustrate  a  beautiful  story  in  a  fluent 
and  scholarly  manner,  are  faithful  to  fact  and 
fancy,  accurate  as  to  costume  —  the  painter's  hobby 
—  are  drawn  with  strength  and  virility  and  are  rich 
in  colour.  As  records  of  the  career  of  one  of  our 
most  distinguished  American  born  artists,  albeit  his 
life  was  almost  wholly  spent  in  England,  they  are 
complete  and  satisfying. 

The  third  decorator  of  the  library,  John  Singer 
Sargent,  has  lingered  long  over  his  work  for  the 
long,  high  gallery  which  bears  his  name.  The  two 
ends  and  six  connecting  lunettes,  of  the  Sargent 
Gallery,  are  already  in  place;  yet  to  come  are  the 
paintings  to  occupy  the  three  vacant  panels  on  the 
east  wall,  above  the  long,  straight  stairway,  lead- 
ing to  the  gallery.  Mr.  Sargent  has  chosen  a  com- 
prehensive and  deeply  significant  theme  for  his 
great  composition.  Judaism  and  Christianity,  or 


MONUMENTAL    BOSTON  439 

The  Triumph  of  Religion,  as  the  older  title  stands, 
is  elaborated  into  many  panels  into  which  the  some- 
what restricted  space  divides  itself.  The  painter 
shows  a  large  grasp  of  subject  worked  out  with  an 
immense  amount  of  sumptuous  detail,  and  has  given 
to  Boston,  for  naturally  the  tangible  "eward  of 
such  labour  is  negligible,  the  epitome  of  his  genius. 

As  it  stands  the  work  covers  a  period  of  more 
than  twenty  years  of  the  artist's  life  and  represents 
three  periods  within  that  time.  The  first  sequence, 
The  Judaic  Development,  covers  the  entire  space 
at  the  north  end  of  the  hall,  and  was  finished  about 
1895.  It  includes  the  composition  in  the  lunette, 
representing  the  Children  of  Israel  under  the  yoke 
of  their  oppressors;  the  ceiling  panel,  with  the 
Pagan  deities,  Moloch  and  Astarte ;  and  the  Frieze 
of  the  Prophets,  with  Moses  in  high  relief.  The 
very  nature  of  this  subject  renders  its  simple  telling 
perhaps  well  nigh  impossible ;  Sargent  makes  it  rich 
and  symbolic  to  the  point  of  complexity,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Frieze  of  the  Prophets,  which  is 
lucid  and  simple.  This  section  contains  some  of  the 
most  characteristic  painting  though  it  is  less  decora- 
tive in  effect  than  the  second  section  of  the  work, 
the  lunette  and  frieze  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  hall, 
placed  about  1903. 

This  second  section,  known  as  The  Dogma  of  the 


440     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

Redemption,  is  Byzantine  in  character,  and  Sar- 
gent is  said  to  have  founded  the  lunette,  at  least, 
upon  a  decoration  in  the  Cathedral  of  Cefalu,  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  interesting  churches  in 
Sicily.  This  cathedral  was  founded  in  1131  by 
King  Roger,  who  returning  safely  after  a  danger- 
ous voyage  from  Calabria,  erected  it  in  gratitude 
for  his  preservation  upon  the  spot  where  he  landed. 
We  have  in  the  lunette  the  three  Persons  of  the 
Trinity,  their  oneness  made  manifest  by  the  exact 
similarity  of  their  faces  —  the  low  reliefs  having 
been  cast  from  one  mould  —  and  by  the  fact  that 
one  vast  garment  envelops  and  unites  them. 

The  frieze  of  angels,  which  balances  that  of  the 
prophets,  is  composed  of  the  eight  bearers  of  the 
Instruments  of  the  Passion  flanking  the  central 
figure  of  the  crucifix  with  Adam  and  Eve  bound 
with  the  body  of  Christ  in  a  trinity  of  the  flesh. 

The  Theme  of  the  Madonna  in  the  niches  and  the 
connecting  strip  of  ceiling  at  the  south  end  of  the 
gallery  and  the  six  lunettes  of  the  side  walls,  form 
the  third  series  of  the  sequence,  installed  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1916.  One  may  see  that  as  the  decoration 
progresses  it  gains  in  clarity  and  purely  decorative 
quality.  The  lunette,  Law,  done  almost  in  mono- 
chrome, seems  most  perfectly  to  fulfil  the  province 
of  mural  painting. 


JOHN    OUINCY    ADAMS,    BY    JOHN    SIXGI.KTOX    COPLEY. 

PAINTED   WHEN    ADAMS    WAS    2~    YEARS   OF    AGE    AND    MINISTER    AT    THE    HAGl'E. 

MfSEUM    OF    FINE    ARTS. 


SELF   PORTRAIT,   PAINTED    IN    1849:    WILLIAM    MORRIS    HUNT. 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE   ARTS. 


THE    FORTUNE    TELLER,    BY    WILLIAM    MORRIS    HUNT. 
MUSEUM   OF   FINE   ARTS. 


PLANTING  POTATOES,  BY  JEAN  FRANCOIS   MILLET. 
MUSEUM   OF   FINE  ARTS. 


MONUMENTAL  BOSTON          441 

The  key  to  the  decorations  is  unfortunately  long, 
and  it  is  with  pain  that  one  sees  daily  groups  of 
serious,  conscientious  folk  poring  over  its  laboured 
composition,  gazing  with  the  affected  reverence  of 
the  student  anxious  to  miss  nothing  of  the  literature 
of  the  subject.  Yet  the  literature  of  the  subject 
seems  in  a  way  to  defeat  the  best  part  of  the  cause. 
The  printed  text  fatigues  the  mind.  One  would  do 
well,  in  my  opinion,  to  disregard  it  utterly  and  to 
devote  one's  attention  to  the  handsome  painting,  the 
masterly  composition,  the  rich  development  of 
colour. 

Puvis  with  his  few  graceful  phrases  presents  his 
serene  theme  without  the  bore  of  a  lesson  to  be 
learned;  Sargent  could  do  as  much,  or  as  little,  and 
allow  the  spectator,  however  attentive  in  his  desire 
to  understand,  more  freedom  of  imagination,  more 
pure  artistic  delight  in  the  thing  of  real  importance 
in  his  work.  C'est  tres  Boston  to  take  pleasure  in 
the  form  of  medicine,  that  is  part  of  the  eternal  cul- 
ture bluff  of  the  New  Englander.  Yet  the  mission 
of  art  is  not  to  "improve  the  mind"  —at  least  not 
in  this  pedantic  fashion  —  but  to  react  upon  the 
sensibilities  and  the  imagination,  to  stimulate,  to 
please.  All  this  Sargent  does  wonderfully  without 
that  printed  text.  That  he  himself  has  mastered 
his  subject  in  all  its  ramifications  is  enough.  With 


442     A  LOITERER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

that  knowledge  he  presents  it  in  a  rich,  deep,  illu- 
minating manner  that  needs  no  lengthy  discourse  to 
back  it  up. 

Behind  the  Library  and  beyond  Massachusetts 
Avenue  Huntington  Avenue  has  been  devoted  to 
the  arts.  Symphony  Hall,  the  Opera  House,  the 
Conservatory,  and  finally  the  Boston  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts  stand  within  one  neighbourhood,  while 
beyond  the  Museum,  upon  the  Fenway,  is  Mrs. 
Jack  Gardner's  palace,  Fenway  Court. 

The  museum,  dating  merely  from  1870  and  for 
years  without  funds  for  purchase,  has  of  late  made 
tremendous  strides  and  now  takes  rank  with  the 
best  in  this  country.  It  excels  in  its  collection  of 
Greek  sculpture,  its  Chinese  and  Japanese  paint- 
ings, its  Egyptian  sculpture,  its  textiles,  its  nine- 
teenth century  French  paintings,  with  special  ref- 
erence to  Millet,  and  its  collection  of  historic 
American  portraits.  There  is  also  the  special 
room  devoted  to  the  work  of  Boston's  pioneer 
painter  and  patron,  William  Morris  Hunt. 

The  exterior  of  the  building  is  cold  and  forbid- 
ding, while  within  the  constant  changes,  due  to  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  collections  and  the  constant  ad- 
ditions and  alterations  to  the  building  itself,  defer 
that  feeling  of  calm  enjoyment  indispensable  to 
complete  appreciation.  Everything  is  on  a  big 


HEAD   OF    A    GODDESS    FROM    CHIOS.    4TH    CENTURY    B.C. 
DEPARTMENT    OF    CREEK     SCULPTURE, 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE    ARTS. 


APHRODITE.    MARPLE.    FOURTH    CENTURY    B.C. 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE    ARTS. 


PADMAPANI,   THE    COMPASSIONATE    LORD. 

CHINESE  COLLECTIONS,  LATE   l6TH    OR  EARLY    I7TH    CENTURY. 

MUSEUM    OF    FINE   ARTS. 


MADONNA    AND  THE  CHILD,    WITH    SAINTS    AND   ANGELS,    BY    FRA    AXGELICO. 
MUSEUM   OF   FINE   ARTS. 


PORTRAIT   OF    FRAY    FELIX    HORTENSIO    PALAVICINO, 
PAINTED   IN    lOOQ   BY    EL   GRECO. 
MUSEUM    OF    FINE    ARTS. 


MONUMENTAL   BOSTON          443 

scale  and  one  has  the  impression  of  unnecessary 
labyrinths  of  corridors,  separating  rather  than  con- 
necting galleries.  As  I  write  the  central  portion 
of  the  main  floor  is  encased  in  scaffolding  awaiting 
Mr.  Sargent's  pleasure;  for  he  is  to  decorate  the 
ceiling  of  the  dome. 

The  American  room  of  Copleys  and  Stuarts  and 
their  contemporaries  contains  many  pictures  on 
which  the  early  fame  of  the  museum  rested.  Not  all 
of  the  Copleys  displayed  are  owned  by  the  Museum, 
but  the  collection,  including  the  loans,  is  remark- 
ably rich  and  fine,  unsurpassed.  The  Athenaeum 
portraits  of  George  and  Martha  Washington  are 
here  deposited  and  are  of  particular  value  and  in- 
terest as  the  originals  from  which  so  many  copies 
were  made. 

The  collection  of  Sargent  water  colours  is  one  of 
the  great  attractions  to  the  museum,  containing 
many  favourites,  and  in  some  respects  superior  to 
the  similar  collection  owned  by  the  Brooklyn  In- 
stitute. There  is  also  a  series  of  water  colours  by 
Winslow  Homer,  and  a  growing  collection  of  the 
works  in  this  medium  by  Dodge  MacKnight  which 
form  an  excellent  basis  for  future  development.  A 
series  of  drawings  by  Blake  reveal  the  strength  of 
that  great  English  draughtsman. 

The  Hunt  room,  situated  directly  over  the  me- 


444     A  LOITERER  IX  NEW  ENGLAND 

morial  library  given  by  the  painter's  daughters,  is 
artfully  concealed  and  to  be  reached  only  by  a  spe- 
cial elevator.  Were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  its  sit- 
uation is  so  obscure  as  to  be  passed  over  by  most 
visitors,  and  that  the  room  itself  is  not  always  pre- 
sented in  just  the  most  effective  manner,  one  should 
almost  be  inclined  to  like  its  remoteness,  which  gives 
it  quite  the  air  of  a  small  sanctuary.  Most  of  the 
better  pictures  are  owned  by  the  daughters  and  lent 
to  the  Museum. 

Through  Hunt  came  Millet  to  Boston,  for  the 
American  discovered  the  great  Barbizon  master  to 
this  country.  Already  rich  in  the  works  of  Millet 
the  Museum  was  enriched  last  year  by  the  bequest 
of  the  valuable  Quincy-Shaw  collection  of  Millets, 
which  forms  two  interesting  rooms. 

The  foreign  collections  are  incoherent  but  con- 
tain a  number  of  great  pictures,  notably  a  fine 
Greco,  Portrait  of  Fray  Felix  Hortensio  Pala- 
vicino,  and  an  incomparable  Lawrence,  Portrait  of 
William  Locke.  The  collections  of  Chinese  and 
Japanese  paintings  are  extraordinary  and  with 
constant  growth  are  becoming  a  great  feature  of 
the  Museum. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  Boston  allowed 
the  famous  Jarves  Collection,  now  in  New  Haven, 
to  slip  through  its  fingers.  In  1859,  eleven  years 


445 

before  the  incorporation  of  the  first  museum  in 
Copley  Square,  this  collection  of  Italian  primitives 
was  offered  the  city  as  a  nucleus  for  a  museum  of 
art.  This  offer  was  allowed  to  lapse,  and  the  op- 
portunity passed.  Ten  years  later  a  charter  was 
applied  for.  The  Boston  Athenaeum  had  received  a 
bequest  of  armour  and  the  offer  of  funds  for  a  room 
in  which  to  exhibit  it;  the  Social  Science  Associa- 
tion had  conceived  the  idea  of  a  public  collection  of 
plaster  casts;  the  architectural  casts  of  the  Insti- 
tute of  Technology  had  outgrown  its  quarters;  and 
Harvard  College  sought  an  opportunity  to  make 
its  collection  of  engravings  accessible  to  the  public. 
These  forces  combined  in  1869  and  obtained  a  char- 
ter the  following  year,  and  the  Museum  was  in- 
augurated. The  city  gave  the  plot  of  ground  at 
Copley  Square  and  popular  subscriptions  furnished 
the  building  fund. 

The  first  exhibitions  in  the  Museum  consisted  al- 
most entirely  of  loans,  but  later  both  bequests  and 
gifts  enriched  the  resources  of  the  trustees  and  the 
collections  outgrew  the  first  building  and  have 
spread  throughout  the  vastness  of  the  second. 
Boston's  civic  pride  is  great;  it  finds,  perhaps,  its 
most  grateful  outlet  in  the  expansion  of  its 
museum. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACiuTY 


A     001  145751     2 


